While I understand the lack of proper open source alternatives for some software like AutoCAD and After Effects, it always felt weird that the best IDEs/Text Editors are made by big corporations, because you know, these are the tools programmers use.

I tried vim/neovim, which I enjoy using, but I’ve come to prefer visual editors instead of text based. Kate looks promising, and I’m willing to contribute to it in my free time, but it just has that “amateurish” feel to it that I can’t explain.

Anyone aware of other alternatives?

  • Rikudou_SageAEnglish
    4•11 months ago

    What about JetBrains Fleet? I’m not sure it’s open source, but it’s free and I think it’s a direct competitor to VS Code.

    • 133arc585English
      7•11 months ago

      Quoting JetBrains,

      Fleet is free to use during the public preview

      (emphasis mine)

      So it is only temporarily free. Once it’s polished it will no longer be free. Better to not get tied in to something that will be taken away from you before long.

      • Rikudou_SageAEnglish
        3•11 months ago

        Huh, TIL. I never even considered it being paid, because you can’t really compete with VS Code with a paid product. If you don’t mind paid products, chances are you’re already using some of JetBrains IDEs because they are simply miles ahead. Fleet being paid just doesn’t make sense. Well, we’ll see what they come up with.

      • corytheboyd
        1•11 months ago

        You can also just… pay for it? I give money to JetBrains in exchange for incredibly useful tools. It’s okay to pay for things.

        • pjhenry1216
          4•11 months ago

          Considering the context of the thread, this isn’t really a useful take. They were talking about free software (open source at that). They were warning them it won’t be free forever and, seeing as how that is a requirement, then yeah, it would be taken away.

          There’s no need to be condescending when you’re in the wrong conversation with your opinion. No one said you can’t pay for things or that it’s not ok.

          So your high horse isn’t needed here.

        • 133arc585
          1•11 months ago

          What a weird take. You’re allowed to pay for whatever you’d like. Personally, I can’t afford to pay for any JetBrains product, even if I wanted to.

          Not only are there alternatives which may be better overall or better suited to someone’s needs, that wasn’t even my point. My point was more that it is only temporarily free, and so the parent commenter’s comment of “it’s free” should be taken with a grain of salt if you’re considering the product.

          Moreover, we’re in the Open Source community: Fleet is neither free nor open source, and pointing that out here is relevant.