I will preface this with I used to lean heavily to using IDEs. I still think there is a place for them in development, depending on the language/framework you a

I will preface this with I used to lean heavily to using IDEs. I still think there is a place for them in development, depending on the language/framework you are developing in. With that said I almost entirely use Sublime these days. Out of the box Sublime doesn't have an enormous feature load. However, you can easily find/add packages to make it your own. You can essentially turn Sublime into your own custom IDE with only the features you personally need and want without all the bloat of a fully-loaded IDE. Again though, I think it really depends on the language and framework you are developing in. I think it also depends on skill levels. I don't mean that in a rude or condescending manner. I just think IDEs are most often the first entry point into coding for many people. They either become so comfortable with using them (was my case for a long time) that they don't bother, or don't want, to look outside the box for other development environments. This can often lead to relying on the environment for helping with writing the code. Where if the individual does switch to something like vim or Sublime they struggle without the crutch provided by an IDE environment. I don't claim to be some expert coder by any means, and find myself constantly referring to books and Google, but I can honestly say that my skill levels increased when I stopped solely using an IDE and moved to Sublime. Why did I switch? For a couple reasons. First, I wanted to try something new (I used to use DreamWeaver and Eclipse mainly). Second, I saw more and more people using Sublime and wanted to see what all the hype was about. I still use Eclipse for some mobile stuff, but beyond that I am entirely Sublime.