Google Antigravity • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Antigravity

#211

Post by fhinkel » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:36 PM UTC

sangeeth96 wrote: post #164

With all due to respect to the folks working on Antigravity, this feels like a vibe-coded VSCode fork to me. Font sizes, icon sizes, panel sizes are all over the place (why?). To top it all off, the first request just failed with overload/quota exceeded errors (understandable, but still). Looks like I'll wait to see if Google cares about putting the polish into a VSCode fork that at least comes close to what Cursor d…

The UI is certainly buggy, and things are getting fixed all the time. Guess it was more a "let people try the agent manager" instead of overfocusing on looks.

Re: Google Antigravity

#212

Post by nahuel0x » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:36 PM UTC

golergka wrote: post #185

nateb2022 wrote: post #43

I went ahead and downloaded it, it looks to be a VSCode fork very similar to Cursor, with support for the following models: - Gemini 3 Pro (High) - Gemini 3 Pro (Low) - Claude Sonnet 4.5 - Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Thinking) - GPT-OSS 120B (Medium)

As somebody who worked on two IDEs which didn't fork VSCode but still used Monaco for code editing views, I think forking VSCode is almost always the right solutions for a new IDE. You get extensions, familiarity and most importantly, don't waste valuable time on the boring stuff which VSCode has already implemented. Nothing bad with using code other people made open. Our whole industry is built on this.

Why the need to fork it instead of creating a new extension? (besides marketing)

Re: Google Antigravity

#213

Post by koiueo » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

fooqux wrote: post #146

pooyamo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>vscode fork I wonder why they are not trying to fixup something based on their own GUI stacks like Flutter or Compose Multiplatform. It seems only Zed is truly innovating in this space.

Well it's a helluva lot faster to make for one. For two, just about everyone knows how to navigate in vscode by now. Reducing the barrier of entry has obvious advantages.

I have Cursor at work. The only element of the interface I'm using (and know how to use) is the chat window.

IMO, it's an absolutely crappy IDE, crappy editor, with absolutely incomprehensible hostile UI.

I have almost two decades of experience with Vim, Emacs and IntelliJ. FWIW, I was able to easily find my ways in helix, kakoune and Zed.

Re: Google Antigravity

#214

Post by Etheryte » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

pdntspa wrote: post #201

kUdtiHaEX wrote: post #107

2020: every day a new JS framework is announced 2024: every day a new Chrome fork browser is announced 2025: every day a new AI IDE vscode fork is announced

Why is it so hard for these to be VSCode extensions and not forks?

Microsoft has very specific constraints on what extensions can and can't do, it's not a free for all. They're actively defending their mote by allowing Copilot to do things in a way that extensions couldn't. That's why all the serious contenders make a fork, it's simply not possible to have the same integration otherwise.

Re: Google Antigravity

#215

Post by dweekly » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

modeless wrote: post #78

nateb2022 wrote: post #43

I went ahead and downloaded it, it looks to be a VSCode fork very similar to Cursor, with support for the following models: - Gemini 3 Pro (High) - Gemini 3 Pro (Low) - Claude Sonnet 4.5 - Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Thinking) - GPT-OSS 120B (Medium)

Thank you for saying what this entire blog post doesn't. It's actually disrespectful of Google to launch this without even a mention of the fact that it is based on VSCode.

There's some irony in that, given how many other companies have "created browsers" that are just Chromium forks and rubbed Google the wrong way.

The intro checklist for Antigravity includes watching VS Code tutorials!

Re: Google Antigravity

#216

Post by bgrainger » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

efields wrote: post #204

MacOS/Safari User here. Stuck on 'Setting Up Your Account' once I've authorized it in the browser. /shrug

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45968731

  Why can I not authenticate into Google Antigravity?
  Google Antigravity is currently available for non-Workspace personal Google accounts in approved geographies. Please try using an @gmail.com email address if having challenges with Workspace Google accounts (even if used for personal purposes).

https://antigravity.google/docs/faq

Re: Google Antigravity

#217

Post by bdn_ » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:39 PM UTC

Just from the name, I thought this was going to be Google's official take on the classic "Google Gravity" site from ages ago: https://mrdoob.com/projects/chromeexperiments/google-gravity...

I used to love leaving that site open on public PCs and watching the reactions that resulted :)

Re: Google Antigravity

#218

Post by giancarlostoro » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:39 PM UTC

I just have zero faith in Google. How long until we hear that someone mysteriously got banned by Google (as we see on HN every few months? it feels like it anyway) and hear about how now they have no AI tooling etc etc etc because its all married to their Google Account.

Additionally... Google Code was shut down in 2016? I have zero confidence in such a user hostile company. They gave you a Linux phone, they extended it, and made it proprietary. They gave you a good email account, extended it and made it proprietary. They took away office software from you via Google Docs, so now you don't even own the software they do.

No thanks.

Re: Google Antigravity

#219

Post by NewsaHackO » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:39 PM UTC

candiddevmike wrote: post #182

kUdtiHaEX wrote: post #107

2020: every day a new JS framework is announced 2024: every day a new Chrome fork browser is announced 2025: every day a new AI IDE vscode fork is announced

AIUI the forks are required because Microsoft is gatekeeping functionality used by Copilot from extensions so they can't be used by these agents.

But Microsoft made VSCode lol, I think being able to gatekeep things like that shouldn’t allow a billion dollar company just reuse all of your code instead of making their own IDE

Re: Google Antigravity

#220

Post by darkmarmot » Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 5:40 PM UTC

ryandvm wrote: post #200

echelon wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is going to win AI and kill all the other market participants. They have the revenues to support all of this. They spent time learning from all the players and can now fast follow into every market. Now they're fast and nimble and are willing to clone other products wholesale, fork VSCode, etc. They're developing all of this, meanwhile Pichai is calling it a "bubble" to put a chill on funding (read: competitio…

Has Google *ever* successfully entered and taken over an existing market?

Besides search, Android kinda killed Nokia and friends for the consumer phone market.