5 ms·

what are the plans for atom? will it be discontinoued?

lstamour 6y ago
If Microsoft can sustain so many teams working on To-Do apps https://twitter.com/4Lou/status/1265723231396417536?s=20 https://twitter.com/4Lou/status/1265723231396417536?s=20 that they need a chart to illustrate how your To-Dos will move between apps, I think Microsoft can afford to put a small team towards maintaining Atom while a larger team works on VS Code and separately Visual Studio. There are different target audiences, and unless Atom and VS Code end up borrowing architecture ideas from each other, and introduce API compatibility, I don’t see that changing in the near future. Generally speaking, Microsoft cares enough about existing customers and backwards-compatibility that I could see them maintaining it until there’s more overlap in UI. There’s another option too, that GitHub is large enough they might prefer using Atom internally over VS Code by enough developers to support the project in the spare time of the developers using Atom instead. So I’d say Atom is only discontinued if it breaks due to lack of developer use and interest, like just about any open source project. I mean, has Bower been discontinued? https://bower.io/ https://bower.io/ No, but yes? ;-)
- dmortin 6y ago
  Interest is gradually dropping apparently: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F0_x5x3g https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...
  - pkaye 6y ago
    Looks like more popular in China?
    - dmortin 6y ago
      I wonder why.
  - doomjunky 6y ago
    Even more interesting is the comparison. VSCode took the lead in the late summer of 2017. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F0_x5x3g,%2Fm%2F0134xwrk https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...
  - JamesCoyne 6y ago
    According to this arbitrary comparison, December 2017 was a pivotal moment for editors https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F0_x5x3g,%2Fm%2F0134xwrk,%2Fm%2F07zh7 https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...
- ravenstine 6y ago
  Like with Bower, they're probably waiting for enough interest in Atom to drop off before they tell people to migrate to VS Code. With the example of Bower, there are still way too many projects using it in the wild. I predict it's going to be another 8 years or so before they decide to actually put Bower to sleep.
  - ComputerGuru 6y ago
    Side note: I’m sure I’m not alone in believing libman completely destroys bower. It just needs better stand-alone tooling.
e2021 6y ago
Atom is already effectively discontinued, no more eng happening from what I heard.
- uxamanda 6y ago
  Still my favorite editor, so that’s sad to hear. For those of you that have moved on from Atom, but didn’t go to VS Code, where did you end up? Sublime Text is probably where I’ll head (back to), but curious if there are other options people are happy with. Have tried VS Code multiple times, but it just feels kludgy to me.
  - dflock 6y ago
    I agree with you - the Atom UI/UX is much better than VSCode in lots of ways. I'm currently slowly getting used to the pain of VSCode and am about 80% VSCode & 20% Atom currently. VSCode seems to be the next best option, with the most momentum, etc...
    - besus 6y ago
      That momentum with VSCode is my concern. Will it just become a bloated, slow, resource pig that Visual Studio has been for years now? Long live Atom!
      - rob74 6y ago
        Erm, I hate to break it to you, but VSCode and Atom are both Electron-based, so they're not exactly light on resources either... If you are going to have a whole browser engine running, I guess it makes sense to at least make a full-blown IDE out of it rather than a simpler editor (or a glorified chat app like Slack)
      - nicoburns 6y ago
        Atom is slowest editor I've ever used. Visual Studio would have to do pretty badly to reach that level. Atom is good in other ways. It's very extensible. But my cursor actually had noticeable lag.
dflock 6y ago
Microsoft killed Atom the day they took over Github - they haven't had the balls to say anything publicly, but just go look at the commit graphs in the Atom repos. Here's a summary: https://twitter.com/DuncanLock/status/1177747512905461760 https://twitter.com/DuncanLock/status/1177747512905461760 And here are the contributor graphs: https://github.com/atom/atom/graphs/contributors https://github.com/atom/atom/graphs/contributors
- ohduran 6y ago
  I have both 'nightly' versions on my laptop, Atom Nightly and VSCode Insiders, and the commit activity in the former pales in comparison with the latter. Eventually moved onto VSCode. As a former Atom hardcore fan, this was an emotional hit.
  - floydnoel 6y ago
    I was a big fan of Atom as well. It pains me to see MS taking over every single default developer tool. I have been watching a single VSCode issue for years now, hoping that some simple functionality which was key to my workflow (and exists in Atom) could finally be implemented. It’s free so I shouldn’t complain, I suppose!
    - dflock 6y ago
      Which issue is that? This was one of my big ones: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/23931 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/23931 Cramming literally everything into that tiny sidebar and making you constantly resize it when you switch between files, search, git is one of VSCode's larger UX blunders.
tyleo 6y ago
Is there any crossover in contributors from atom to VSCode since the acquisition? If I were working on Atom when GitHub got acquired, I’d be eager to switch to contributing to VSCode just from a career perspective. It seems like there is more potential for cross organization collaboration and growth there.

If Microsoft can sustain so many teams working on To-Do apps https://twitter.com/4Lou/status/1265723231396417536?s=20 https://twitter.com/4Lou/status/1265723231396417536?s=20 that they need a chart to illustrate how your To-Dos will move between apps, I think Microsoft can afford to put a small team towards maintaining Atom while a larger team works on VS Code and separately Visual Studio. There are different target audiences, and unless Atom and VS Code end up borrowing architecture ideas from each other, and introduce API compatibility, I don’t see that changing in the near future. Generally speaking, Microsoft cares enough about existing customers and backwards-compatibility that I could see them maintaining it until there’s more overlap in UI. There’s another option too, that GitHub is large enough they might prefer using Atom internally over VS Code by enough developers to support the project in the spare time of the developers using Atom instead. So I’d say Atom is only discontinued if it breaks due to lack of developer use and interest, like just about any open source project. I mean, has Bower been discontinued? https://bower.io/ https://bower.io/ No, but yes? ;-)

dmortin 6y ago
Interest is gradually dropping apparently: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F0_x5x3g https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...
- pkaye 6y ago
  Looks like more popular in China?
  - dmortin 6y ago
    I wonder why.
- doomjunky 6y ago
  Even more interesting is the comparison. VSCode took the lead in the late summer of 2017. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F0_x5x3g,%2Fm%2F0134xwrk https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...
- JamesCoyne 6y ago
  According to this arbitrary comparison, December 2017 was a pivotal moment for editors https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F0_x5x3g,%2Fm%2F0134xwrk,%2Fm%2F07zh7 https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...
ravenstine 6y ago
Like with Bower, they're probably waiting for enough interest in Atom to drop off before they tell people to migrate to VS Code. With the example of Bower, there are still way too many projects using it in the wild. I predict it's going to be another 8 years or so before they decide to actually put Bower to sleep.
- ComputerGuru 6y ago
  Side note: I’m sure I’m not alone in believing libman completely destroys bower. It just needs better stand-alone tooling.

e2021 6y ago

Atom is already effectively discontinued, no more eng happening from what I heard.

uxamanda 6y ago
Still my favorite editor, so that’s sad to hear. For those of you that have moved on from Atom, but didn’t go to VS Code, where did you end up? Sublime Text is probably where I’ll head (back to), but curious if there are other options people are happy with. Have tried VS Code multiple times, but it just feels kludgy to me.
- dflock 6y ago
  I agree with you - the Atom UI/UX is much better than VSCode in lots of ways. I'm currently slowly getting used to the pain of VSCode and am about 80% VSCode & 20% Atom currently. VSCode seems to be the next best option, with the most momentum, etc...
  - besus 6y ago
    That momentum with VSCode is my concern. Will it just become a bloated, slow, resource pig that Visual Studio has been for years now? Long live Atom!
    - rob74 6y ago
      Erm, I hate to break it to you, but VSCode and Atom are both Electron-based, so they're not exactly light on resources either... If you are going to have a whole browser engine running, I guess it makes sense to at least make a full-blown IDE out of it rather than a simpler editor (or a glorified chat app like Slack)
    - nicoburns 6y ago
      Atom is slowest editor I've ever used. Visual Studio would have to do pretty badly to reach that level. Atom is good in other ways. It's very extensible. But my cursor actually had noticeable lag.

dflock 6y ago

Microsoft killed Atom the day they took over Github - they haven't had the balls to say anything publicly, but just go look at the commit graphs in the Atom repos. Here's a summary: https://twitter.com/DuncanLock/status/1177747512905461760 https://twitter.com/DuncanLock/status/1177747512905461760 And here are the contributor graphs: https://github.com/atom/atom/graphs/contributors https://github.com/atom/atom/graphs/contributors

ohduran 6y ago
I have both 'nightly' versions on my laptop, Atom Nightly and VSCode Insiders, and the commit activity in the former pales in comparison with the latter. Eventually moved onto VSCode. As a former Atom hardcore fan, this was an emotional hit.
- floydnoel 6y ago
  I was a big fan of Atom as well. It pains me to see MS taking over every single default developer tool. I have been watching a single VSCode issue for years now, hoping that some simple functionality which was key to my workflow (and exists in Atom) could finally be implemented. It’s free so I shouldn’t complain, I suppose!
  - dflock 6y ago
    Which issue is that? This was one of my big ones: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/23931 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/23931 Cramming literally everything into that tiny sidebar and making you constantly resize it when you switch between files, search, git is one of VSCode's larger UX blunders.

tyleo 6y ago

Is there any crossover in contributors from atom to VSCode since the acquisition? If I were working on Atom when GitHub got acquired, I’d be eager to switch to contributing to VSCode just from a career perspective. It seems like there is more potential for cross organization collaboration and growth there.