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GitHub Codespaces vs. Gitpod: Choosing the Best Online Code Editor

50 points by okikio 5y ago

theoa 5y ago
It's nice when there are two winners that you can hop on and off of and move to the other as you please - as hackernoon indicates he is doing. This indicates that your code is free to move about and not so stuck in a "walled garden".
- ghuntley 5y ago
  Heya, Geoff from Gitpod here. From Gitpod's values at https://www.notion.so/gitpod/Brand-Values-2ed4c2f93c84499b98e3b5389980992e https://www.notion.so/gitpod/Brand-Values-2ed4c2f93c84499b98... > We are not opinionated. We integrate, don't dictate. Gitpod is an open platform giving developers full transparency over how Gitpod works and allowing everybody to contribute. Our product design integrates with all stacks giving developers full flexibility. We seek to collaborate and partner with other products/companies that share these values. > Working in open source is in our DNA and everything we’ve created over the past 10 years was built in the open. For Gitpod to be successful we have to win the hearts and minds of developers. Developers (everybody in our team included) enjoy discovering, installing, fiddling around with, contributing to and talking about open source software. This makes open source in the developer tools world unrivalled as a go to developer strategy in terms of speed, cost effectiveness and level of adoption it drives. --- Both GitHub Codespaces and Gitpod are _wonderful_ products that solve big problems (https://www.gitpod.io/blog/workshops-as-code https://www.gitpod.io/blog/workshops-as-code) in our industry. I strongly advocate for people to build with portability in mind and to not lock into proprietary solutions. See previous comments by myself on this page for some the possibilities (nix/docker-compose) and how it's possible to share between local, gitpod and codespaces the same source tree. <3
nathias 5y ago
Why would anyone use an online code editor?
- sail0rm00n 5y ago
  It’s great to be able to bang out some code on a tablet or a Chromebook without Linux access. Being able to resume from anywhere without thinking twice and having to checkpoint the code is also great. Off-loading compilation and editing to the cloud is the future of programming and already done at scale at large companies like google.
  - mishafb 5y ago
    So our computers are getting more powerful every day for nothing but Electron?
    - sail0rm00n 5y ago
      My laptop definitely doesn’t have server grade hardware in it and the battery grinds to a halt when compiling larger projects.
    - ghuntley 5y ago
      Computers are getting more powerful every day and _how we use them is changing_. https://ghuntley.com/the-office/ https://ghuntley.com/the-office/
      - cxr 5y ago
        > What happens if you get in a van accident and that results in you becoming homeless once again? <https://ghuntley.com/how-long https://ghuntley.com/how-long> This link gives a 404.
- ghuntley 5y ago
  > why? Pull up a chair for a moment and consider that in this moment of time you are an open-source maintainer or a team-lead who has to review the pull-requests in the video below. Each browser tab is a brand new development environment, the git branch is automatically cloned, all dependencies are restored and your software has already been compiled. Good? Now you understand what Gitpod is all about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7BINiu_Rbo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7BINiu_Rbo
oneweekwonder 5y ago
I wonder why coder.com[0] is not mentioned, the ide is also open-source[1]. As for cloud9 they closed their source and license when they moved to v3, but there is still a v2 descendant called Pylon IDE[3]. [0]: https://coder.com/ https://coder.com/ [1]: https://github.com/cdr/code-server https://github.com/cdr/code-server [3]: https://github.com/pylonide/pylon https://github.com/pylonide/pylon
- okikio 5y ago
  I didn't mention coder because I haven't actually used it, so any comments I make on it wouldn't be based on my experience, and my goal with the article was to give you a realistic view of what its like to use both Github Codespaces and/or Gitpod.
austinjp 5y ago
Dumb question, from someone who doesn't use web-based instant environments like these: what are some popular "locally hosted" alternatives? For reasons of personal taste, I just don't like browser based development (not to mention how resource hungry it can be), and I get antsy when relying on third-party hosted services for day-to-day work. I like to treat my laptop as a fully-integrated, offline-capable *, cheap, almost disposable development environment. If I accidentally destroy my filesystem or whatever - which has happened at least once :) - I want to be able to stand it up again and get to productivity within the day. I appreciate that hosted services are appealing because they "solve" exactly this problem. But I want a locally hosted solution, thanks. Is it just a matter of code storage (git repos, backups, whatever) + VMs/containers + IDE? Is everyone cobbling together their own solutions? Are there recognised standard approaches, or are they specific to the orgs within which they evolve? My personal case is as a solo web developer, but I'd be interested in hearing from individuals and teams of any size. * Edit: By "offline-capable" I more mean "offline-first". I'm occasionally nomadic, and use my laptop on a long train/plane journey where internet is unreliable or unavailable. Plus I have a hardware off-switch for radios to save battery. I'm also slowly implementing local caches of software installed with apt/pip/yarn/whatever so I can pop-up and tear-down virtual environments without necessarily needing an internet connection. (This is a work in progress.) So I'm not interested in cloud-based environments, but thanks to those who have suggested them.
- vbezhenar 5y ago
  Check out https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers I think that GitHub Codespaces are built on this technology. It should allow you (or any of your team mates) to start coding almost instantly, you need to install vscode and docker on your host machine and that's about it. Rent a server in the cloud, install docker there, point your local docker to this cloud server and your laptop turns into a thin client. That's a theory at least.
  - arsenace 5y ago
    Warning though, it's ram hungry. Not gonna run well on a $5 droplet.
say_it_as_it_is 5y ago
I have to assume that neither of these services has invested in high-end hardware that would help to reduce compile times. If they did have high performance machines, compile time savings would be clearly promoted from landing pages. Fair assumption, right? What kind of solutions are people using for remote dev for this?
- ghuntley 5y ago
  Heya! Gitpod deploys Kubernetes nodes with 64gb of ram and 16vCPUs. In additon to this we precompile your application (CI/CD style) so you don't need to wait for compilation when reviewing co-workers work. https://www.gitpod.io/screencasts/continuously-prebuild-your-project https://www.gitpod.io/screencasts/continuously-prebuild-your...
  - okikio 5y ago
    Wait I'd like to update the article with this info, do you have a link I can reference in the article?
    - ghuntley 5y ago
      Let's chat over at https://www.gitpod.io/chat https://www.gitpod.io/chat. I'm Geoff.
arniom 5y ago
There's also Theia (from Eclipse Foundation) who have a self-hosted version, and is compatible with VS Code extension. edit : https://theia-ide.org https://theia-ide.org
- ghuntley 5y ago
  Which was created by Gitpod [TypeFox] btw (same story with open-vsx as well) :)
webwanderings 5y ago
Sometimes one just needs a terminal running remotely. Otherwise, code-server is good enough and works well without much marketing fluff.

50 points by okikio 5y ago

It's nice when there are two winners that you can hop on and off of and move to the other as you please - as hackernoon indicates he is doing. This indicates that your code is free to move about and not so stuck in a "walled garden".

ghuntley 5y ago
Heya, Geoff from Gitpod here. From Gitpod's values at https://www.notion.so/gitpod/Brand-Values-2ed4c2f93c84499b98e3b5389980992e https://www.notion.so/gitpod/Brand-Values-2ed4c2f93c84499b98... > We are not opinionated. We integrate, don't dictate. Gitpod is an open platform giving developers full transparency over how Gitpod works and allowing everybody to contribute. Our product design integrates with all stacks giving developers full flexibility. We seek to collaborate and partner with other products/companies that share these values. > Working in open source is in our DNA and everything we’ve created over the past 10 years was built in the open. For Gitpod to be successful we have to win the hearts and minds of developers. Developers (everybody in our team included) enjoy discovering, installing, fiddling around with, contributing to and talking about open source software. This makes open source in the developer tools world unrivalled as a go to developer strategy in terms of speed, cost effectiveness and level of adoption it drives. --- Both GitHub Codespaces and Gitpod are _wonderful_ products that solve big problems (https://www.gitpod.io/blog/workshops-as-code https://www.gitpod.io/blog/workshops-as-code) in our industry. I strongly advocate for people to build with portability in mind and to not lock into proprietary solutions. See previous comments by myself on this page for some the possibilities (nix/docker-compose) and how it's possible to share between local, gitpod and codespaces the same source tree. <3

nathias 5y ago

Why would anyone use an online code editor?

sail0rm00n 5y ago
It’s great to be able to bang out some code on a tablet or a Chromebook without Linux access. Being able to resume from anywhere without thinking twice and having to checkpoint the code is also great. Off-loading compilation and editing to the cloud is the future of programming and already done at scale at large companies like google.
- mishafb 5y ago
  So our computers are getting more powerful every day for nothing but Electron?
  - sail0rm00n 5y ago
    My laptop definitely doesn’t have server grade hardware in it and the battery grinds to a halt when compiling larger projects.
  - ghuntley 5y ago
    Computers are getting more powerful every day and _how we use them is changing_. https://ghuntley.com/the-office/ https://ghuntley.com/the-office/
    - cxr 5y ago
      > What happens if you get in a van accident and that results in you becoming homeless once again? <https://ghuntley.com/how-long https://ghuntley.com/how-long> This link gives a 404.
ghuntley 5y ago
> why? Pull up a chair for a moment and consider that in this moment of time you are an open-source maintainer or a team-lead who has to review the pull-requests in the video below. Each browser tab is a brand new development environment, the git branch is automatically cloned, all dependencies are restored and your software has already been compiled. Good? Now you understand what Gitpod is all about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7BINiu_Rbo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7BINiu_Rbo

oneweekwonder 5y ago

I wonder why coder.com[0] is not mentioned, the ide is also open-source[1]. As for cloud9 they closed their source and license when they moved to v3, but there is still a v2 descendant called Pylon IDE[3]. [0]: https://coder.com/ https://coder.com/ [1]: https://github.com/cdr/code-server https://github.com/cdr/code-server [3]: https://github.com/pylonide/pylon https://github.com/pylonide/pylon

okikio 5y ago
I didn't mention coder because I haven't actually used it, so any comments I make on it wouldn't be based on my experience, and my goal with the article was to give you a realistic view of what its like to use both Github Codespaces and/or Gitpod.

austinjp 5y ago

Dumb question, from someone who doesn't use web-based instant environments like these: what are some popular "locally hosted" alternatives? For reasons of personal taste, I just don't like browser based development (not to mention how resource hungry it can be), and I get antsy when relying on third-party hosted services for day-to-day work. I like to treat my laptop as a fully-integrated, offline-capable *, cheap, almost disposable development environment. If I accidentally destroy my filesystem or whatever - which has happened at least once :) - I want to be able to stand it up again and get to productivity within the day. I appreciate that hosted services are appealing because they "solve" exactly this problem. But I want a locally hosted solution, thanks. Is it just a matter of code storage (git repos, backups, whatever) + VMs/containers + IDE? Is everyone cobbling together their own solutions? Are there recognised standard approaches, or are they specific to the orgs within which they evolve? My personal case is as a solo web developer, but I'd be interested in hearing from individuals and teams of any size. * Edit: By "offline-capable" I more mean "offline-first". I'm occasionally nomadic, and use my laptop on a long train/plane journey where internet is unreliable or unavailable. Plus I have a hardware off-switch for radios to save battery. I'm also slowly implementing local caches of software installed with apt/pip/yarn/whatever so I can pop-up and tear-down virtual environments without necessarily needing an internet connection. (This is a work in progress.) So I'm not interested in cloud-based environments, but thanks to those who have suggested them.

vbezhenar 5y ago
Check out https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers I think that GitHub Codespaces are built on this technology. It should allow you (or any of your team mates) to start coding almost instantly, you need to install vscode and docker on your host machine and that's about it. Rent a server in the cloud, install docker there, point your local docker to this cloud server and your laptop turns into a thin client. That's a theory at least.
- arsenace 5y ago
  Warning though, it's ram hungry. Not gonna run well on a $5 droplet.

say_it_as_it_is 5y ago

I have to assume that neither of these services has invested in high-end hardware that would help to reduce compile times. If they did have high performance machines, compile time savings would be clearly promoted from landing pages. Fair assumption, right? What kind of solutions are people using for remote dev for this?

ghuntley 5y ago
Heya! Gitpod deploys Kubernetes nodes with 64gb of ram and 16vCPUs. In additon to this we precompile your application (CI/CD style) so you don't need to wait for compilation when reviewing co-workers work. https://www.gitpod.io/screencasts/continuously-prebuild-your-project https://www.gitpod.io/screencasts/continuously-prebuild-your...
- okikio 5y ago
  Wait I'd like to update the article with this info, do you have a link I can reference in the article?
  - ghuntley 5y ago
    Let's chat over at https://www.gitpod.io/chat https://www.gitpod.io/chat. I'm Geoff.

arniom 5y ago

There's also Theia (from Eclipse Foundation) who have a self-hosted version, and is compatible with VS Code extension. edit : https://theia-ide.org https://theia-ide.org

ghuntley 5y ago
Which was created by Gitpod [TypeFox] btw (same story with open-vsx as well) :)

webwanderings 5y ago

Sometimes one just needs a terminal running remotely. Otherwise, code-server is good enough and works well without much marketing fluff.