7 ms·

Is it time to open source SublimeText?

42 points by rukshn 4y ago

chunk_waffle 4y ago
The only reason I no longer pay for a license to Sublime Text is that it's not available on my OS. Them either supporting more OSes (a lot of work!) or making it open source would at least cause _me_ to buy a license again. They don't even have to make it "open source", keeping a proprietary license such that it's just "source available" would be fine with me too. Edit: Hilarious to get down voted for this comment.
- azeirah 4y ago
  What OS are you running, then? Linux, MacOS and Windows are all supported. I don't know a lot of commercial software that is cross-platform beyond those three.
  - johnfonesca 4y ago
    Some variant of BSD probably...
    - chunk_waffle 4y ago
      OpenBSD
  - chunk_waffle 4y ago
    > I don't know a lot of commercial software that is cross-platform beyond those three. This discussion isn't about "a lot of commercial software", it's about Sublime Text. There world is not all Linux, MacOS and Windows. I'm aware Sublime Text isn't available for OpenBSD (There's a FreeBSD package but last I checked it was broken) I'm just letting the developers know, there's interest outside of those OSes.
- miroljub 4y ago
  Curious which OS are you using for development, since Sublime provides official versions[1] for macOS, Windows and Linux. [1] https://www.sublimetext.com/download https://www.sublimetext.com/download
  - chunk_waffle 4y ago
    OpenBSD
WhereIsTheTruth 4y ago
I always find it frustrating having to wait for an update (of an already super slow release schedule) to get a simple bug/usability fix.. ST uses python, with the boom of AI stuff, i feel like they are missing out.. it should have been a heaven for that crowd.. Blender profits from it quite a lot these days! That's unfortunate..
VWWHFSfQ 4y ago
Hey I don't want to pay for your thing. You should make it free and also give me the source code.
- sebstefan 4y ago
  Maybe for the Thing™, but from where I stand it does seem like Sublime Text might be headed towards the Abandonware territory if they don't wake up It had a presence at some point, now every company I visit I see a lot of VS Code and Sublime is nowhere to be found on people's screens. I switched too. I liked sublime text a little better but VSC is free and the Rust integration was very pain free. I have painful memories of having to configure build systems sometimes with Sublime (not with Rust - I didn't use Rust at the time). And I waste 8 seconds every time I need to boot it up...
  - candiddevmike 4y ago
    I recently tackled this with my side projects and created an open source contingency plan (https://www.candid.dev/open-source/ https://www.candid.dev/open-source/). Basically, if a product goes without an update for six months, it will be released under the MPL-2.0. I am still working on finding some kind of foundation that can keep the code in escrow, for now it is just written online and in the LLC operating agreement.
  - creshal 4y ago
    I don't know. For a while, Sublime hit a slump, where 2 was no longer actively maintained, but 3 an unfinished beta that also didn't seem to receive much public updates, but that's been resolved years ago, and from all public indicators, Sublime is a healthy, steady business these days, with regular releases for both Text and Merge and new employees getting hired.
    - recursive 4y ago
      At some point, I was prompted to upgrade, with no indication that it would invalidate my license. Subsequently, there was no obvious path to downgrade. I'm not sure how many people are in my boat, but that left a sour taste. I like the product, but not enough to read the fine print in the license agreement and pay for it again.
willidiots 4y ago
I always find myself coming back to ST for "powerful text editor" needs. It works, it does what I need. I was able to use it for a long time before paying for it. Not sure why it needs to be explicitly compared to VSCode and treated with the same expectations.
- chpatrick 4y ago
  Because VSCode can do everything Sublime can, and a lot more, for free.
  - jonwinstanley 4y ago
    I always switch back to Sublime for very large files. VSCode can't handle them. That being said, I use VSCode 99% of the time.
  - ElectronBadger 4y ago
    It can't be MS-free. It's more than enough for me. Besides, ST is the best text/coding editor I've ever used, and I've been using quite a lot of these.
- bastardoperator 4y ago
  They're both editors. Does ST have features found nowhere else? Doubtful...
  - davemp 4y ago
    Afaik ST's main feature is lower latency than VSCode
    - bastardoperator 4y ago
      Fair enough
drcongo 4y ago
No. I'm happy paying for the software that I spend most of my time in. The claim in the article that Sublime is "overshadowed" by VSCode simply doesn't ring true to any regular Sublime user, especially if they can type faster than VSCode can render to screen, which is basically everyone.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- trevoristall 4y ago
  [citation needed]
- nagyf 4y ago
  I dont understand this argument. Vscode is very fast after you opened it. Startup is slow but who cares? I haven’t restarted my vscode for a week now.
- andreicek 4y ago
  I use only Sublime for my work. But to claim that VSCode didn't overshadow it is incorrect. Everyone uses VSCode, and while I hate it because of the bloat, slow startup, and slow plugins, given a blind test I don't think I would be able to tell which one is faster in typing...
- The_Colonel 4y ago
  > especially if they can type faster than VSCode can render to screen, which is basically everyone. Maybe I'm blind, but I can't see any typing latency in any editor.
- 420official 4y ago
  Just tried this and I can't jam keys fast enough to get any input lag in vscode. What are you referring to?
  - billbrown 4y ago
    I saw the same thing (very happy long-time ST user) in VS Code _years ago_. Maybe the parent has that sort of perspective?
spyremeown 4y ago
Honestly I'd rather Sublime had taken over instead of VSCode. It's just really good software. Sublime to me is up there with OpenBSD and the Golang standard library in terms of well written, "just works" software.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- jwestbury 4y ago
  > the Golang standard library Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 MST 2006 would like a word with you.
- coliveira 4y ago
  How could it be if they don't have MS deep pockets to pay developers and integrate the IDE into their products?
kaladin_1 4y ago
If any Sublime Team member comes by just know that you guys have a solid software that many of us used when we left Notepad++ and still use. Even though, currently, I use it more for note taking and text editing. I really love it. Well done guys!
rs999gti 4y ago
Aren't most of you 1337 h4x0r making 300K USD as developers in start ups? 99 USD should be in your couch cushions, Tesla cupholder, or the bottom of your messenger bag.
- thomascgalvin 4y ago
  I know you're joking, but as a US dev I am very well compensated, and I don't even blink at giving JetBrains a hundred bucks a year for IntelliJ. Good tools make my life better. I'm not a sublime user, but if I was, if it was critical to my workflow, I would absolutely pay for it.
  - dkuntz2 4y ago
    I paid for it as a college student a decade ago. I literally did all my coursework in it, it felt like a no-brainer to throw some money at a company that made a great product that I relied on.
  - jonwinstanley 4y ago
    As a tiny company, with a fantastic product, I'm sure Sublime has a lot of loyal customers who continue to pay for new versions. Competing with VSCode is not really possible, or necessary.
- marcellus23 4y ago
  It really does baffle me how many software engineers making six figures and buying $7 lattes every day will balk at spending even a couple bucks on a useful app.
  - GTP 4y ago
    I think it's just a matter of habit: we're used to paying for physical goods, but over time we were accustomed to get digital stuff for free.
inportb 4y ago
What about CudaText? https://cudatext.github.io/ https://cudatext.github.io/
- miroljub 4y ago
  What about it?
- reaperman 4y ago
  Thanks for linking this. I love SublimeText but I also have to augment it with https://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ https://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ sometimes. Always on the lookout for something that can do both. 010 editor is currently by far the best text editor I've used for >1GB files. Other than that I just use ST.
- anta40 4y ago
  Hmm looks like it's inspired by Sublime. First impression: intalling plugins is a bit pain in the a*. No online package manager, so gotta load the zip manually.
- blackfawn 4y ago
  Never saw this, thanks! I immediately thought it was something for working with NVIDIA's CUDA but the note at the bottom of their page clears that up: 'Disclaimer: word "cuda" is taken from Serbian language, it means "miracles".'
johnfonesca 4y ago
"I feel that open sourcing SublimeText is the only way for SubmlineText to be relevant and compete against VSCode." The SublimeText people make a living by developing and selling a honest product (and they're probably happy doing that). There's nothing wrong with not competing with VSCode.
drinchev 4y ago
Sublime Text editor is my day-dreaming destination when I feel depressed of work. It makes me really happy that 2-3 people can actually build something, sell a piece of it in an non-disturbing way, and do this for a living. It's also one of the best shareware models ( Is this even a word these days? ), that I've ever stumbled upon. Keep up the good work, folks!
xnorswap 4y ago
I assumed this was a blog post from the author of Sublime Text until I opened it. This is the most entitled article I've read for a very long time. It also asserts with no evidence that VSCode is popular because "it is open source" rather than the more obvious, "It has the backing of Microsoft". There are thousands of less popular open source editors out there. And yet Sublime is one of the few pieces of software I've actually paid for (admittedly not since ST2).
- crop_rotation 4y ago
  Hang around on HN and you would see more and more entitled articles and comments. Entitled comments come up so regularly on so many topics.
- cassianoleal 4y ago
  > the more obvious, "It has the backing of Microsoft". I'm a VS Code user despite that. I just find it to be far superior to everything else. It's what I hoped Atom would have been.
- mekal 4y ago
  Did they edit the article or something? I don't think it sounds entitled at all. Sounds to me like the author is just innocently wondering if open sourcing it might help them compete and wants to see them succeed. And there is a mention of "backing of Microsoft" being part of the advantage: "With the rapid pace of VSCode development with the backing of Microsoft, I don’t see any other way SublimeText can keep up unless they make the editor open-source."
whalesalad 4y ago
If you could merge the ecosystem and extensibility of vscode with the editing performance, color rendering etc of subl it would be the perfect editor.
haspok 4y ago
Wondering if the OP hasn't heard of Notepad++ - if they are using Windows? It has a GPL license and does text editing rather well.
faefox 4y ago
Or -- hear me out -- support the small business trying to make a living selling a good product at a reasonable price rather than insisting it be open-sourced, stripped for parts by the big-tech machine and inevitably left for dead.
gjsman-1000 4y ago
No. The market already has an open-source code editor. If it was great, who needs another? This is more of an indictment of Visual Studio Code being a bloated Electron mess and needing a better open-source project than that, than a request to make Sublime open-source.
crop_rotation 4y ago
Sublime is an awesome piece of software written with so much effort put into performance. I don't see why the author should open source it. People who like open source editors only have many options. Open sourcing Sublime text would just mean the amount of paying users would drop to a much lower number, and the authors would be forced to write CRUD apps in some company. Once it goes open source there would be a new free open source distribution and all corporate money would drop I think. On HN the sentiment for many things that everyone else can make enough money via donations/patreon and do some consulting or merchandising. However, very few HN developers would choose that over their well paying jobs writing closed source software.
Springtime 4y ago
> When it comes to making money, the SublimeText developers can offer the core version of SublimeText for free, while they can sell a pro version with more advanced features targeted towards more advanced users and developers. Sublime has been known for years for its generous trialware, where a countless number of users just click past the popup suggesting buying. Such users have already decided they want all the features of Sublime just for free and the devs have allowed for that without restriction. The suggested scenario would ironically make the available free version worse. Plus there has already been a healthy plugin community for Sublime. I wouldn't doubt it might receive a boost from being open source but if we contrast with Atom editor, which recently officially EoL'd and was open source, it didn't make it a superior experience to Sublime ime, despite how much functionality the community was eager to replicate. Which isn't to say I would be against them going open source, just that I don't feel the reasoning is persuasive in the article.
gaws 4y ago
> I had to do some text editing and was in need of a text editor that was better than Notepad, and with muscle memory This embarrassing post could've been avoided if he'd use Vim.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
stephc_int13 4y ago
I don't think this is a good idea. Sublime Text is already a very good text editor. It could be even better, but I am not convinced than changing its distribution model would change anything at this stage. The cost of the license is peanuts compared to the time I spend using it. Of course there are many free and good alternatives, but Sublime is just a bit more polished and focused, it is near perfect for my use case.
- andreicek 4y ago
  > The cost of the license is peanuts compared to the time I spend using it. And hopefully the money you make with it
  - stephc_int13 4y ago
    I could probably use Notepad, VSCode or Vim and make exactly the same amount of money.. No, this is about the invaluable pleasure of using a slightly nicer tool. I use (paid) Berkeley Graphics fonts for the same reason.
indymike 4y ago
Lots of people have pointed out how entitled this article is. There's another problem with this article. The author assumes that his plans for the future are in alignment with or superior to the vision of the authors / ip owners of Sublime. There's plenty of room for great free and open source tools and great proprietary development tools. Always has been... Emacs, Eclipse and VS Code haven't killed off the paid IDEs. Sublime's niche has a long tradition of paid and free tools. What is good is that Sublime has found a way to survive, and hopefully prosper. That should be celebrated... and maybe the lesson is why they are able to survive in spite of great free competition. (this also applies to JetBrains, WingIDE and many other commercial development tools, all of which are great values for developers) Honestly, I don't see competing with VS Code as much of a goal: it takes a world-beating development effort, and you will likely not have a self-sustaining organization in the end. For Microsoft, they get a way to distribute Copilot, Azure, Github and proprietary add-ons. For a smaller company, you may not have a way to create a sustainable team to maintain the product.
alrlroipsp 4y ago
Come on, just pay for good software.
thefz 4y ago
No! Its authors deserve every penny. And Sublime Merge is good, too.
antisthenes 4y ago
"It's time to open source this software, because I can't afford $99 the author is asking for it"
oliwarner 4y ago
By that logic, it's well past time to open source Windows, Office and the Adobe Creative Suite. I'm trying to read this charitably but that convenience of a small binary is perhaps the sort of USP you're paying for in a $99 text editor. Sometimes we can't have the moon on a stick. And that's okay.
smaccona 4y ago
This article finally made me do today what I've been putting off for no good reason: buy Sublime Text licenses for all our devs that use it. We've been talking about switching to VS Code for ages, and indeed I tried switching myself several times, but always found myself back in Sublime Text for one reason or another. It really is a great editor. My thanks to the (small!) team that develops it!
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
Sublime text is one of the best pieces of software ever written and is regularly updated. Stop being a cheapskate and just pay for it if it is valuable. Making it free and open source is a bizarre thing to ask.
- ElectronBadger 4y ago
  Being a long-lasting supporter of open source software, I wholeheartedly agree with you. There are many commercial software masterpieces (Sublime Text, Bitwig, Houdini among others) that would never (or at least in the foreseeable future) achieve that level of perfection without commercial support of the developers, allowing them to focus on their product. While I'd like the ST to become open source (although I doubt it would improve the program significantly), it should keep its commercial license. I'll happily renew when my v3 license expires.
000ooo000 4y ago
Gonna ruffle some feathers here, but I suspect devs who spend more of the time with their hands on the KB and less of the time with their hand on the mouse will always have a place in their toolbox for software like ST. When you are heavily invested in KB-based workflows, e.g. CLI, shortcuts etc, software that doesn't feel slow and shit is a pleasure to use. VSCode is very featured, but it doesn't even approach ST in the 'pleasure to use' category. So is it fair to say that they're for different users and then is it fair to say that ST needing to compete with VSCode isn't accurate?

42 points by rukshn 4y ago

The only reason I no longer pay for a license to Sublime Text is that it's not available on my OS. Them either supporting more OSes (a lot of work!) or making it open source would at least cause _me_ to buy a license again. They don't even have to make it "open source", keeping a proprietary license such that it's just "source available" would be fine with me too. Edit: Hilarious to get down voted for this comment.

azeirah 4y ago
What OS are you running, then? Linux, MacOS and Windows are all supported. I don't know a lot of commercial software that is cross-platform beyond those three.
- johnfonesca 4y ago
  Some variant of BSD probably...
  - chunk_waffle 4y ago
    OpenBSD
- chunk_waffle 4y ago
  > I don't know a lot of commercial software that is cross-platform beyond those three. This discussion isn't about "a lot of commercial software", it's about Sublime Text. There world is not all Linux, MacOS and Windows. I'm aware Sublime Text isn't available for OpenBSD (There's a FreeBSD package but last I checked it was broken) I'm just letting the developers know, there's interest outside of those OSes.
miroljub 4y ago
Curious which OS are you using for development, since Sublime provides official versions[1] for macOS, Windows and Linux. [1] https://www.sublimetext.com/download https://www.sublimetext.com/download
- chunk_waffle 4y ago
  OpenBSD

WhereIsTheTruth 4y ago

I always find it frustrating having to wait for an update (of an already super slow release schedule) to get a simple bug/usability fix.. ST uses python, with the boom of AI stuff, i feel like they are missing out.. it should have been a heaven for that crowd.. Blender profits from it quite a lot these days! That's unfortunate..

VWWHFSfQ 4y ago

Hey I don't want to pay for your thing. You should make it free and also give me the source code.

sebstefan 4y ago
Maybe for the Thing™, but from where I stand it does seem like Sublime Text might be headed towards the Abandonware territory if they don't wake up It had a presence at some point, now every company I visit I see a lot of VS Code and Sublime is nowhere to be found on people's screens. I switched too. I liked sublime text a little better but VSC is free and the Rust integration was very pain free. I have painful memories of having to configure build systems sometimes with Sublime (not with Rust - I didn't use Rust at the time). And I waste 8 seconds every time I need to boot it up...
- candiddevmike 4y ago
  I recently tackled this with my side projects and created an open source contingency plan (https://www.candid.dev/open-source/ https://www.candid.dev/open-source/). Basically, if a product goes without an update for six months, it will be released under the MPL-2.0. I am still working on finding some kind of foundation that can keep the code in escrow, for now it is just written online and in the LLC operating agreement.
- creshal 4y ago
  I don't know. For a while, Sublime hit a slump, where 2 was no longer actively maintained, but 3 an unfinished beta that also didn't seem to receive much public updates, but that's been resolved years ago, and from all public indicators, Sublime is a healthy, steady business these days, with regular releases for both Text and Merge and new employees getting hired.
  - recursive 4y ago
    At some point, I was prompted to upgrade, with no indication that it would invalidate my license. Subsequently, there was no obvious path to downgrade. I'm not sure how many people are in my boat, but that left a sour taste. I like the product, but not enough to read the fine print in the license agreement and pay for it again.

willidiots 4y ago

I always find myself coming back to ST for "powerful text editor" needs. It works, it does what I need. I was able to use it for a long time before paying for it. Not sure why it needs to be explicitly compared to VSCode and treated with the same expectations.

chpatrick 4y ago
Because VSCode can do everything Sublime can, and a lot more, for free.
- jonwinstanley 4y ago
  I always switch back to Sublime for very large files. VSCode can't handle them. That being said, I use VSCode 99% of the time.
- ElectronBadger 4y ago
  It can't be MS-free. It's more than enough for me. Besides, ST is the best text/coding editor I've ever used, and I've been using quite a lot of these.
bastardoperator 4y ago
They're both editors. Does ST have features found nowhere else? Doubtful...
- davemp 4y ago
  Afaik ST's main feature is lower latency than VSCode
  - bastardoperator 4y ago
    Fair enough

drcongo 4y ago

No. I'm happy paying for the software that I spend most of my time in. The claim in the article that Sublime is "overshadowed" by VSCode simply doesn't ring true to any regular Sublime user, especially if they can type faster than VSCode can render to screen, which is basically everyone.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
trevoristall 4y ago
[citation needed]
nagyf 4y ago
I dont understand this argument. Vscode is very fast after you opened it. Startup is slow but who cares? I haven’t restarted my vscode for a week now.
andreicek 4y ago
I use only Sublime for my work. But to claim that VSCode didn't overshadow it is incorrect. Everyone uses VSCode, and while I hate it because of the bloat, slow startup, and slow plugins, given a blind test I don't think I would be able to tell which one is faster in typing...
The_Colonel 4y ago
> especially if they can type faster than VSCode can render to screen, which is basically everyone. Maybe I'm blind, but I can't see any typing latency in any editor.
420official 4y ago
Just tried this and I can't jam keys fast enough to get any input lag in vscode. What are you referring to?
- billbrown 4y ago
  I saw the same thing (very happy long-time ST user) in VS Code _years ago_. Maybe the parent has that sort of perspective?

spyremeown 4y ago

Honestly I'd rather Sublime had taken over instead of VSCode. It's just really good software. Sublime to me is up there with OpenBSD and the Golang standard library in terms of well written, "just works" software.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jwestbury 4y ago
> the Golang standard library Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 MST 2006 would like a word with you.
coliveira 4y ago
How could it be if they don't have MS deep pockets to pay developers and integrate the IDE into their products?

kaladin_1 4y ago

If any Sublime Team member comes by just know that you guys have a solid software that many of us used when we left Notepad++ and still use. Even though, currently, I use it more for note taking and text editing. I really love it. Well done guys!

rs999gti 4y ago

Aren't most of you 1337 h4x0r making 300K USD as developers in start ups? 99 USD should be in your couch cushions, Tesla cupholder, or the bottom of your messenger bag.

thomascgalvin 4y ago
I know you're joking, but as a US dev I am very well compensated, and I don't even blink at giving JetBrains a hundred bucks a year for IntelliJ. Good tools make my life better. I'm not a sublime user, but if I was, if it was critical to my workflow, I would absolutely pay for it.
- dkuntz2 4y ago
  I paid for it as a college student a decade ago. I literally did all my coursework in it, it felt like a no-brainer to throw some money at a company that made a great product that I relied on.
- jonwinstanley 4y ago
  As a tiny company, with a fantastic product, I'm sure Sublime has a lot of loyal customers who continue to pay for new versions. Competing with VSCode is not really possible, or necessary.
marcellus23 4y ago
It really does baffle me how many software engineers making six figures and buying $7 lattes every day will balk at spending even a couple bucks on a useful app.
- GTP 4y ago
  I think it's just a matter of habit: we're used to paying for physical goods, but over time we were accustomed to get digital stuff for free.

inportb 4y ago

What about CudaText? https://cudatext.github.io/ https://cudatext.github.io/

miroljub 4y ago
What about it?
reaperman 4y ago
Thanks for linking this. I love SublimeText but I also have to augment it with https://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ https://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ sometimes. Always on the lookout for something that can do both. 010 editor is currently by far the best text editor I've used for >1GB files. Other than that I just use ST.
anta40 4y ago
Hmm looks like it's inspired by Sublime. First impression: intalling plugins is a bit pain in the a*. No online package manager, so gotta load the zip manually.
blackfawn 4y ago
Never saw this, thanks! I immediately thought it was something for working with NVIDIA's CUDA but the note at the bottom of their page clears that up: 'Disclaimer: word "cuda" is taken from Serbian language, it means "miracles".'

johnfonesca 4y ago

"I feel that open sourcing SublimeText is the only way for SubmlineText to be relevant and compete against VSCode." The SublimeText people make a living by developing and selling a honest product (and they're probably happy doing that). There's nothing wrong with not competing with VSCode.

drinchev 4y ago

Sublime Text editor is my day-dreaming destination when I feel depressed of work. It makes me really happy that 2-3 people can actually build something, sell a piece of it in an non-disturbing way, and do this for a living. It's also one of the best shareware models ( Is this even a word these days? ), that I've ever stumbled upon. Keep up the good work, folks!

xnorswap 4y ago

I assumed this was a blog post from the author of Sublime Text until I opened it. This is the most entitled article I've read for a very long time. It also asserts with no evidence that VSCode is popular because "it is open source" rather than the more obvious, "It has the backing of Microsoft". There are thousands of less popular open source editors out there. And yet Sublime is one of the few pieces of software I've actually paid for (admittedly not since ST2).

crop_rotation 4y ago
Hang around on HN and you would see more and more entitled articles and comments. Entitled comments come up so regularly on so many topics.
cassianoleal 4y ago
> the more obvious, "It has the backing of Microsoft". I'm a VS Code user despite that. I just find it to be far superior to everything else. It's what I hoped Atom would have been.
mekal 4y ago
Did they edit the article or something? I don't think it sounds entitled at all. Sounds to me like the author is just innocently wondering if open sourcing it might help them compete and wants to see them succeed. And there is a mention of "backing of Microsoft" being part of the advantage: "With the rapid pace of VSCode development with the backing of Microsoft, I don’t see any other way SublimeText can keep up unless they make the editor open-source."

whalesalad 4y ago

If you could merge the ecosystem and extensibility of vscode with the editing performance, color rendering etc of subl it would be the perfect editor.

haspok 4y ago

Wondering if the OP hasn't heard of Notepad++ - if they are using Windows? It has a GPL license and does text editing rather well.

faefox 4y ago

Or -- hear me out -- support the small business trying to make a living selling a good product at a reasonable price rather than insisting it be open-sourced, stripped for parts by the big-tech machine and inevitably left for dead.

gjsman-1000 4y ago

No. The market already has an open-source code editor. If it was great, who needs another? This is more of an indictment of Visual Studio Code being a bloated Electron mess and needing a better open-source project than that, than a request to make Sublime open-source.

crop_rotation 4y ago

Sublime is an awesome piece of software written with so much effort put into performance. I don't see why the author should open source it. People who like open source editors only have many options. Open sourcing Sublime text would just mean the amount of paying users would drop to a much lower number, and the authors would be forced to write CRUD apps in some company. Once it goes open source there would be a new free open source distribution and all corporate money would drop I think. On HN the sentiment for many things that everyone else can make enough money via donations/patreon and do some consulting or merchandising. However, very few HN developers would choose that over their well paying jobs writing closed source software.

Springtime 4y ago

> When it comes to making money, the SublimeText developers can offer the core version of SublimeText for free, while they can sell a pro version with more advanced features targeted towards more advanced users and developers. Sublime has been known for years for its generous trialware, where a countless number of users just click past the popup suggesting buying. Such users have already decided they want all the features of Sublime just for free and the devs have allowed for that without restriction. The suggested scenario would ironically make the available free version worse. Plus there has already been a healthy plugin community for Sublime. I wouldn't doubt it might receive a boost from being open source but if we contrast with Atom editor, which recently officially EoL'd and was open source, it didn't make it a superior experience to Sublime ime, despite how much functionality the community was eager to replicate. Which isn't to say I would be against them going open source, just that I don't feel the reasoning is persuasive in the article.

gaws 4y ago

> I had to do some text editing and was in need of a text editor that was better than Notepad, and with muscle memory This embarrassing post could've been avoided if he'd use Vim.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

stephc_int13 4y ago

I don't think this is a good idea. Sublime Text is already a very good text editor. It could be even better, but I am not convinced than changing its distribution model would change anything at this stage. The cost of the license is peanuts compared to the time I spend using it. Of course there are many free and good alternatives, but Sublime is just a bit more polished and focused, it is near perfect for my use case.

andreicek 4y ago
> The cost of the license is peanuts compared to the time I spend using it. And hopefully the money you make with it
- stephc_int13 4y ago
  I could probably use Notepad, VSCode or Vim and make exactly the same amount of money.. No, this is about the invaluable pleasure of using a slightly nicer tool. I use (paid) Berkeley Graphics fonts for the same reason.

indymike 4y ago

Lots of people have pointed out how entitled this article is. There's another problem with this article. The author assumes that his plans for the future are in alignment with or superior to the vision of the authors / ip owners of Sublime. There's plenty of room for great free and open source tools and great proprietary development tools. Always has been... Emacs, Eclipse and VS Code haven't killed off the paid IDEs. Sublime's niche has a long tradition of paid and free tools. What is good is that Sublime has found a way to survive, and hopefully prosper. That should be celebrated... and maybe the lesson is why they are able to survive in spite of great free competition. (this also applies to JetBrains, WingIDE and many other commercial development tools, all of which are great values for developers) Honestly, I don't see competing with VS Code as much of a goal: it takes a world-beating development effort, and you will likely not have a self-sustaining organization in the end. For Microsoft, they get a way to distribute Copilot, Azure, Github and proprietary add-ons. For a smaller company, you may not have a way to create a sustainable team to maintain the product.

alrlroipsp 4y ago

Come on, just pay for good software.

thefz 4y ago

No! Its authors deserve every penny. And Sublime Merge is good, too.

antisthenes 4y ago

"It's time to open source this software, because I can't afford $99 the author is asking for it"

oliwarner 4y ago

By that logic, it's well past time to open source Windows, Office and the Adobe Creative Suite. I'm trying to read this charitably but that convenience of a small binary is perhaps the sort of USP you're paying for in a $99 text editor. Sometimes we can't have the moon on a stick. And that's okay.

smaccona 4y ago

This article finally made me do today what I've been putting off for no good reason: buy Sublime Text licenses for all our devs that use it. We've been talking about switching to VS Code for ages, and indeed I tried switching myself several times, but always found myself back in Sublime Text for one reason or another. It really is a great editor. My thanks to the (small!) team that develops it!

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago

Sublime text is one of the best pieces of software ever written and is regularly updated. Stop being a cheapskate and just pay for it if it is valuable. Making it free and open source is a bizarre thing to ask.

ElectronBadger 4y ago
Being a long-lasting supporter of open source software, I wholeheartedly agree with you. There are many commercial software masterpieces (Sublime Text, Bitwig, Houdini among others) that would never (or at least in the foreseeable future) achieve that level of perfection without commercial support of the developers, allowing them to focus on their product. While I'd like the ST to become open source (although I doubt it would improve the program significantly), it should keep its commercial license. I'll happily renew when my v3 license expires.

000ooo000 4y ago

Gonna ruffle some feathers here, but I suspect devs who spend more of the time with their hands on the KB and less of the time with their hand on the mouse will always have a place in their toolbox for software like ST. When you are heavily invested in KB-based workflows, e.g. CLI, shortcuts etc, software that doesn't feel slow and shit is a pleasure to use. VSCode is very featured, but it doesn't even approach ST in the 'pleasure to use' category. So is it fair to say that they're for different users and then is it fair to say that ST needing to compete with VSCode isn't accurate?