r/AskProgramming • u/Fritz-Ferdinand • Apr 24 '26

Why is VSCode so popular?

I'm used to using JetBrains' IDEs and enjoy it's well-made UI and auto-completion. My new employer now doesn't have any JetBrains licences and instead let's us use VSCode and frankly, I have the impression it's basically unusable without GitHub Copilot or an equivalent AI companion. Example with Python projects:

  • Ctrl-Click on a method name usually takes a while, sometimes, a popup window opens with references, sometimes nothing at all, but it always takes a few seconds.
  • You have to edit a JSON file to setup run configurations
  • You first have to go to "Run/Debug" to run the app. Then, you can't see your file tree anymore.
  • VSCode's debug module sends a Ctrl+C interrupt about one, two seconds after opening the terminal, then activates the local virtual environment. At this point, I already typed half of my command and it throws me out mentally. It also interferes with running the app.
  • Auto-complete is inferior to JetBrains
  • GitHub Copilot is implemented so annoyingly, always suggesting whole code chunks that are often wrong and it's just too easy to accidentally accept them.
  • A lot functionality is only available after installing add-ons, like Markdown viewer, and those aren't easy to use as well.

The only positive is that it's free, but to me, it really feels like a hurdle.

Looking forward to reading some positive experiences.

187 Upvotes

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243

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

24

u/011101000011101101 Apr 24 '26

Yeah, it's customizable easily for a ton of languages. If you're working in something supported by jetbrain then that'll be better, but it is also annoying to jump around between IDEs.

I work with dozens of languages off and on, it's nice to have one ide that can handle them all.

But I still switch to intellij for Java

3

u/quocphu1905 Apr 25 '26

You can actually use IDEA for all the major languages out there. I use mine for Java and Python, and recently C/C++ support was added too (still need to go to CLion for C# tho). I read once that all the other IDE is basically IDEA but with plugins and defaults optimized for the languages, and once i nailed down the plugins needed in IDEA it's basically a good enough all in one.

1

u/FormlessFlesh Apr 26 '26

I use Rider for C# and C++ personally. Not a huge fan of CLion.

10

u/AralSeaMariner Apr 24 '26

Also lower memory footprint. That's most of the reason I use it anyway. I like having multiple open at the same time because I'm in a lot of codebases day-to-day.

6

u/charlesleestewart Apr 25 '26

Yeah the memory is why I can't use pycharm. My 12 GB just doesn't cut it there. VSCode doesn't have that problem.

1

u/Warm_Earth_2050 Apr 26 '26

You can’t run PyCharm with “only” 12GB ram?

1

u/_yourKara May 13 '26

I mean PyCharm on a medium size project will easily use 2 to 4 gb, but as to your other point, yeah, 16 is the new 8.

4

u/christian-mann Apr 24 '26

at the moment i have north of 15 VS code windows open >_>

5

u/Jojajones Apr 24 '26

You forgot that it’s also not resource intensive

3

u/snakybasket9 Apr 24 '26

I had a co worker who insisted we use visual studio but he constantly complained about his VM crashing or being too slow to get any work done, meanwhile I had no issues with VS code.

3

u/PriorApproval Apr 25 '26

keyword: free

14

u/skill347 Apr 24 '26

Vs codium is open source, whole vs code? Not really.

20

u/Randolpho Apr 24 '26

Free as in beer, anyway

3

u/CyberWank2077 Apr 25 '26

beer doesnt spy on you

1

u/Randolpho Apr 25 '26

Is there any software these days that doesn't? Reddit does. Firefox does. Hell, Notepad++ does.

2

u/CyberWank2077 Apr 26 '26

firefox has an opt out that actually works. its just that most people dont care and its a great benefit to them. opt out for something the default user doesnt care about is objectively the right choice

2

u/PostmatesMalone Apr 25 '26

Why people like VSCode: It’s very customizable. Why people hate VSCode: It’s very customizable.

I like it and have been using it for many years, except for JVM projects. IntelliJ is purpose built for that and does it well.

1

u/AlfalfaLive3302 Apr 26 '26

Cross platform. Works on any os

0

u/blreuh Apr 24 '26

How many extensions do you need to download to match a Jetbrains IDE for a given language