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Can you explain what happened to Atom development? I've seen numerous posts noting the sharp decline in contribution soon after the acquisition was announced.

by ss3000 6y ago

Can you explain what happened to Atom development? I've seen numerous posts noting the sharp decline in contribution soon after the acquisition was announced. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22601451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22601451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21142934 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21142934 Without an official explanation, given the timing, it'd be reasonable to assume you pulled development resources away from it, the exact thing you actually went on Reddit to claim you wouldn't do: https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/8pc8mf/im_nat_friedman_future_ceo_of_github_ama/e0a2b2e/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/8pc8mf/im_nat_friedman... P.S. I've observed that these kinds of posts tend to turn into a place where people shit on Atom in favor of _insert preferred other editor here_. Feel free to do that here too, but just note that I'm not going to be obliged to engage since it's completely orthogonal to the topic at hand. I think any remaining Atom users at this point are likely already painfully aware that Atom has long since lost the war in developer mindshare, but don't let that stop you from pouring salt on the wound.

spiderfarmer 6y ago
I gave up on Atom this month because of the lack of development. Too bad really.
- poutrathor 6y ago
  I gave up on Atom when it was released because it was the most slow editor I have ever seen. It single handy bias me against Electron app until I discover VSCode.
  - seumars 6y ago
    VSCode is electron-based.
    - maattdd 6y ago
      This is precisely what he is saying.
  - nottorp 6y ago
    Slow or no slow, I couldn't understand how it works. Windows kept opening wherever one least expected it, i got multiple copies of tabs with some introductory help text when i just wanted to get back to my project etc. For once, I'm not going to complain that something is made in Electron :) It was unusable to me in other ways too.
meritt 6y ago
Microsoft owns Github. Microsoft owns VS Code. VS Code is superior to Atom. Do you need an official comment? It seems abundantly obvious to me. Nat is the CEO of GitHub, not Microsoft, and despite any promises made on a Reddit AMA a year ago, why would they devote resources to two competing editors?
- ss3000 6y ago
  All I really want is to hear an explanation from Nat Friedman, CEO of GitHub, the human being, who said he wouldn't pull resources away from Atom development and then evidently did so soon after, to end all this needless speculation once and for all (and what you've suggested in your comment is still speculation, however plausible it might seem to you). It offers very little solace to the few Atom users still hanging on, but I think the least he could do is end the speculation, and provide some certainty on Atom's future as a GitHub/Microsoft funded project so we could decide to either move on or stick around for longer. Please realize that there still hasn't been an official statement that Atom's development at GitHub/Microsoft has been halted/dramatically reduced, or that they hope to transition it into a community led project, or anything to that effect. I hope an official nail in the proverbial coffin is not too much to ask for. EDIT: This comment was a lot snarkier in an earlier iteration. In hindsight, I realize that was in bad taste, so I've reworded it and adjusted the tone. I don't think being needlessly confrontational adds any substance to the discussion here (or anywhere else for that matter), so I would like to apologize for that and hopefully de-escalate so we can resume civil discourse.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - james_s_tayler 6y ago
    Sometimes my wife wants an explanation from me the human being who said he would take the trash out but then never did.
    - tommica 6y ago
      Then maybe you should own up to the consequences of the choice you made and explain your reasoning for not fulfilling the promise that you made.
mnsc 6y ago
You have the explanation laid out pretty well by chipotle_coyote in the comments of one of your linked posts. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22601557 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22601557 Specifically: > But the words of the linked Reddit comment from Nat Friedman were "we will continue to develop and support both Atom and VS Code going forward"; that's a true statement today. Atom is currently being developed and supported. That's a case of adhering to the letter of the statement rather than the spirit, I know. But that circles around to the problem of VSCode's rapid ascent in mindshare -- if your company ends up owning two very similar editors and they both have roughly equal downloads and community interest, you might try to support both equally. But if one of them has orders of magnitude more downloads and community interest than the other, you're going to focus your efforts on the popular one.
sequoia 6y ago
This is the second time I've seen a comment from you complaining about Atom development when an unrelated Github article is posted. What's the purpose of these posts? Do you expect Github to start funding active development of Atom again? If not, what's the goal of the complaints? I.e. why do you keep bringing this up if you know this is water under the bridge? I'm a github user, though I wouldn't call myself a fan exactly, and I don't really know how "teams" works or why it's valuable. I came to this thread to learn more, and I find your comments grousing about Atom again. Hence my question.
- ss3000 6y ago
  Um... I think you might have me confused with someone else? I looked through my own post history and it looks like I did reply in a thread about this topic a while ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22606843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22606843 (same thread that I linked above) I can only speak for myself as to why I posted here. And I really just want an answer for the question I posted (I'm not naive enough to believe a post like this has any chance of changing project priorities at a megacorp). I wrote about this in a bit more detail here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22875388 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22875388 And judging from the upvotes, a decent number of people want the same question answered. If you don't care about the answer, my recommendation would be to simply collapse the thread, downvote if you must, and move on. I'm honestly puzzled as to why so many people seem to be actually offended by the very fact that I'm asking the question, and even seem to be taking it somewhat personally, even though it's not directed at anyone other than the OP.
  - lsh 6y ago
    > I'm honestly puzzled as to why so many people seem to be actually offended by the very fact that I'm asking the question Comment quality and civility has dropped in the last few months. I don't use or even like Atom but if this natfriedman says it will be continue to be supported post-merger, then it isn't, then he needs to clear the air.
  - sequoia 6y ago
    I did confuse you with someone else. lewisl9029 opened this question last time, you were further down thread, apologies. Mostly I'm curious, just like you. You're curious "what happened to Atom development", I'm curious why people bring this question up over and over on unrelated GH threads when they already seem to know the answer–to wit: active feature development on Atom by Github/MSFT has stopped and will not resume. I don't see the point of derailing threads/starting editor flame wars over this question, but I am frequently missing some crucial point. So I ask: What am I missing? What's the point of these "what about atom!!" questions when you know the answer already?

by ss3000 6y ago

spiderfarmer 6y ago

I gave up on Atom this month because of the lack of development. Too bad really.

poutrathor 6y ago
I gave up on Atom when it was released because it was the most slow editor I have ever seen. It single handy bias me against Electron app until I discover VSCode.
- seumars 6y ago
  VSCode is electron-based.
  - maattdd 6y ago
    This is precisely what he is saying.
- nottorp 6y ago
  Slow or no slow, I couldn't understand how it works. Windows kept opening wherever one least expected it, i got multiple copies of tabs with some introductory help text when i just wanted to get back to my project etc. For once, I'm not going to complain that something is made in Electron :) It was unusable to me in other ways too.

meritt 6y ago

Microsoft owns Github. Microsoft owns VS Code. VS Code is superior to Atom. Do you need an official comment? It seems abundantly obvious to me. Nat is the CEO of GitHub, not Microsoft, and despite any promises made on a Reddit AMA a year ago, why would they devote resources to two competing editors?

ss3000 6y ago
All I really want is to hear an explanation from Nat Friedman, CEO of GitHub, the human being, who said he wouldn't pull resources away from Atom development and then evidently did so soon after, to end all this needless speculation once and for all (and what you've suggested in your comment is still speculation, however plausible it might seem to you). It offers very little solace to the few Atom users still hanging on, but I think the least he could do is end the speculation, and provide some certainty on Atom's future as a GitHub/Microsoft funded project so we could decide to either move on or stick around for longer. Please realize that there still hasn't been an official statement that Atom's development at GitHub/Microsoft has been halted/dramatically reduced, or that they hope to transition it into a community led project, or anything to that effect. I hope an official nail in the proverbial coffin is not too much to ask for. EDIT: This comment was a lot snarkier in an earlier iteration. In hindsight, I realize that was in bad taste, so I've reworded it and adjusted the tone. I don't think being needlessly confrontational adds any substance to the discussion here (or anywhere else for that matter), so I would like to apologize for that and hopefully de-escalate so we can resume civil discourse.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- james_s_tayler 6y ago
  Sometimes my wife wants an explanation from me the human being who said he would take the trash out but then never did.
  - tommica 6y ago
    Then maybe you should own up to the consequences of the choice you made and explain your reasoning for not fulfilling the promise that you made.

mnsc 6y ago

You have the explanation laid out pretty well by chipotle_coyote in the comments of one of your linked posts. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22601557 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22601557 Specifically: > But the words of the linked Reddit comment from Nat Friedman were "we will continue to develop and support both Atom and VS Code going forward"; that's a true statement today. Atom is currently being developed and supported. That's a case of adhering to the letter of the statement rather than the spirit, I know. But that circles around to the problem of VSCode's rapid ascent in mindshare -- if your company ends up owning two very similar editors and they both have roughly equal downloads and community interest, you might try to support both equally. But if one of them has orders of magnitude more downloads and community interest than the other, you're going to focus your efforts on the popular one.

sequoia 6y ago

This is the second time I've seen a comment from you complaining about Atom development when an unrelated Github article is posted. What's the purpose of these posts? Do you expect Github to start funding active development of Atom again? If not, what's the goal of the complaints? I.e. why do you keep bringing this up if you know this is water under the bridge? I'm a github user, though I wouldn't call myself a fan exactly, and I don't really know how "teams" works or why it's valuable. I came to this thread to learn more, and I find your comments grousing about Atom again. Hence my question.

ss3000 6y ago
Um... I think you might have me confused with someone else? I looked through my own post history and it looks like I did reply in a thread about this topic a while ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22606843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22606843 (same thread that I linked above) I can only speak for myself as to why I posted here. And I really just want an answer for the question I posted (I'm not naive enough to believe a post like this has any chance of changing project priorities at a megacorp). I wrote about this in a bit more detail here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22875388 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22875388 And judging from the upvotes, a decent number of people want the same question answered. If you don't care about the answer, my recommendation would be to simply collapse the thread, downvote if you must, and move on. I'm honestly puzzled as to why so many people seem to be actually offended by the very fact that I'm asking the question, and even seem to be taking it somewhat personally, even though it's not directed at anyone other than the OP.
- lsh 6y ago
  > I'm honestly puzzled as to why so many people seem to be actually offended by the very fact that I'm asking the question Comment quality and civility has dropped in the last few months. I don't use or even like Atom but if this natfriedman says it will be continue to be supported post-merger, then it isn't, then he needs to clear the air.
- sequoia 6y ago
  I did confuse you with someone else. lewisl9029 opened this question last time, you were further down thread, apologies. Mostly I'm curious, just like you. You're curious "what happened to Atom development", I'm curious why people bring this question up over and over on unrelated GH threads when they already seem to know the answer–to wit: active feature development on Atom by Github/MSFT has stopped and will not resume. I don't see the point of derailing threads/starting editor flame wars over this question, but I am frequently missing some crucial point. So I ask: What am I missing? What's the point of these "what about atom!!" questions when you know the answer already?