Visual Studio Code Has Surprisingly Huge Linux Use & Other Developer Metrics

[wizard69]

Lots of people complaining and "trolling" but VSCode is a great tool with huge community and made lot more progress than any Linux or Open Source editor that I can remember

I suspect a lot of has to do with MicroSoft. Frankly I don’t blame these people as MS has had their problems. It does however distort the discussion a bit.

IMO by far the best tool for coding in Linux (professional or not). And to catch any comments, I have worked on almost any IDE out there free or not

Haven’t used it so can’t comment on VS Code directly. However I’ve used many open source IDE’s and can attest to the idea that most of them are half done. The most reliable editor/IDE available in the FOSS world is EMACS and that beast is anything but user friendly.

[ezst036]

VS code is decent, it has it's short comings. I wonder if others have thought of this:

I would imagine that the VS Code usage numbers on Linux are so high because of a mixture of factors:

* Developers desperate to get off of Windows 10
* working in a "Microsoft shop" company that only uses c#, but management will accept/has approved use of VS Code in place of VS.

If full-VS worked on Linux i suspect that the numbers for VS Code would drop significantly in favor of the larger IDE. Some developers refuse to use Windows OS.

[iznogood]

I suspect a lot of has to do with MicroSoft. Frankly I don’t blame these people as MS has had their problems. It does however distort the discussion a bit.


Haven’t used it so can’t comment on VS Code directly. However I’ve used many open source IDE’s and can attest to the idea that most of them are half done. The most reliable editor/IDE available in the FOSS world is EMACS and that beast is anything but user friendly.

Indeed, and I suspect that most people here use tools occasionaly and as a hobby. Writing professional code is a whole different thing and if the tool is problematic it can discourage someone from working on an entire environment.
I also remember a post from Miguel de Icaza a few years ago, saying that although they where building software for Linux - Mono project, their team used MacBooks.
Its a shame because this hurts the entire community and prevents desktop adoption even for tech people

[bregma]

VS Code is small and fast compared with the hulking morass of Visual Studio or Eclipse. It's not too bad for web development. I suspect it's popular because a lot of kids cut their teeth on Visual Studio and VS Code is their first experience using an editor that can keep up with their typing.

On the whole it's still not as good as vim for what I do (C++ compiler and library development), but still better than a wretched full-on IDE.

[clavko]

VSCode is perfectly fine and does not lag say all. CLion (Jetbrains) in comparison is a hog, at least in my experience. It may provide lots of functionality, but it doesn't matter if I uninstall it after 5 minutes because it "crunches" something in background. It almost looked like a Eclipse speed level to me.

As for C++ on Linux, QtCreator is great option if you haven't tried it yet. Also, had ok-ish experience with KDevelop, though had some crashes with it.

[pal666]

Presumably not a fair comparison because the Jetbrains IDEs (there seem to be different ones for each language?) are not free or particularly cheap.

I am a frequent VS Code user. However I wouldn't recommend it for any HTML/CSS or Java, I couldn't get plug-ins for them to work. It's probably only suited to writing small programs in C++ which is what I have found myself doing recently.

using web editor for c++ development is strange. jetbrains is bad example, real ide is open source and comes with distro

I think for beginners it's a good choice because there is no configuration required and it doesn't mess you around with bloated "projects" which are a complete waste of time for trivial one file programs.

what is stopping you from keeping all one file programs in one project?

[pal666]

For example it allows them to use more suitable or more innovative compilers (like Emscripten, cross compilers, Android NDK) rather than the ancient Microsoft cl.

how is it relevant for linux developers?

And the best thing is it has knocked the Visual Studio (IDE) off top spot in developer surveys

what linux developer survey had vs at the top spot?

[pal666]

I'm surprised Visual Studio runs on Linux, natively.

you were right, visual studio doesn't run on linux. vscode is completely separate project

[pal666]

Eclipse is by far the best example of trash in the FOSS world. There are other bad apps but how many IDE’s end up breaking themselves after installation? Even if the Eclipse update mechanism is avoided and you rely upon distro RPM’s it still stops working when it feels like it.

i only remember "stops working" after upgrade, fixed by removing ~/.eclipse

[pal666]

And to catch any comments, I have worked on almost any IDE out there free or not

but did you learn them or just used them as heavy-weight editors?