6 ms·

> A hackable text editor for the 21st century I'll fix: A proprietary (unhackable) text editor that only runs on OS X. I imagine that web developers will droo

> A hackable text editor for the 21st century I'll fix: A proprietary (unhackable) text editor that only runs on OS X. I imagine that web developers will drool over this.

fafner 13y ago
And it reports data to Google... http://atom.io/packages/metrics http://atom.io/packages/metrics
- callumjones 13y ago
  "If you do not want this information reported, disable this package from the Metrics section of the Settings view (cmd-,)."
  - davesque 13y ago
    Why should I have to opt out of metric gathering in a freaking text editor??
    - squintychino 13y ago
      Because they made the program. So it's their decision. If you want a program that turns this off by default, please feel free to create your own program with this feature disabled.
      - lispm 13y ago
        FAIL. A text editor with this default is just wrong.
      - pritambaral 13y ago
        > please feel free to create your own program with this feature disabled. I could do that very easily, if Atom were FOSS.
      - fauigerzigerk 13y ago
        It's their decision to track their own users by default. It's anyone's decision to criticize them for their decision. That's healthy and much more efficient than for everyone to start creating their own text editors, payment systems, airlines or poultry farms. I for one am more than fed up with hunting down and keeping up-to-date with settings for tracking "features" in every single piece of software I use.
      - fafner 13y ago
        And it's my decision not to use it. Why would I want a non-free (as in beer and speech) editor which reports data to Google, only works on Mac, and lacks any unique features? I don't understand the hype created on HN about it...
- toddmorey 13y ago
  But in fairness, they've fully listed the data being collected. I'm actually very comfortable with them collecting these metrics (though I'm glad there's a way to turn it off just the same). - A unique identifier that is generated by computing the SHA-1 of the machine's MAC address. - The screen width and height - The version of Atom being used - The name of each item opened in a pane such as EditorView, SettingsView, and MarkdownPreviewView - The amount of time the current window was open for - The amount of time the current window to took to load - The amount of time the app took to launch
  - cstuder 13y ago
    I'm almost comfortable with the choice of metrics, except for: >> The name of each item opened in a pane such as EditorView, SettingsView, and MarkdownPreviewView << Why would they need to know my filenames?
    - gnud 13y ago
      I _think_ they're talking about the actual 'atoms' - that is the editor components. So the data that will be sent to google is 'EditorView is open', not 'EditorView contains these files'. I might be wrong though.
      - gjtorikian 13y ago
        You're absolutely right. We don't track individual filenames or data.
subsection1h 13y ago
> A proprietary (unhackable) text editor I developed some packages for HomeSite in the 90s. When HomeSite was integrated into Dreamweaver and development ceased, I realized that I had wasted my time developing HomeSite packages and that I should never again devote my time to extending closed-source software. Emacs has served me well ever since.
kneath 13y ago
Lots of assumptions here.
pbiggar 13y ago
Where are you getting this from? I can see all the source at https://github.com/atom https://github.com/atom. Every repo I checked has the MIT license.
- sheetjs 13y ago
  Can you build a fully functional version of Atom just from those repos? To compare, Apple releases source code for some components, but they definitely don't distribute "/System/Library/Extensions/Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext".
  - Goopplesoft 13y ago
    I thought that file was a joke until I checked it and it actually exists. For those (like me) wondering what it does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%E2%80%93Intel_architecture#Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X.kext http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%E2%80%93Intel_architectur...
    - xentronium 13y ago
      Oh my, "DSMOS has arrived" line (and subsequent freeze) is gonna haunt me for years.
- lobster_johnson 13y ago
  The source of the actual editor isn't public.
  - pritambaral 13y ago
    From IRC: <EvanDotPro> it will be open source, and other platforms, when it's out of beta
- chimeracoder 13y ago
  From Tom Preston-Warner himself: http://discuss.atom.io/t/why-is-atom-closed-source/82/8 http://discuss.atom.io/t/why-is-atom-closed-source/82/8 > Atom won't be closed source, but it won't be open source either. It will be somewhere inbetween, making it easy for us to charge for Atom while still making the source available under a restrictive license so you can see how everything works. We haven't finalized exactly how this will work yet. We will have full details ready for the official launch. However one tries to soften that language, that translates to a proprietary license of any standard definition of "proprietary"[0] [0] It actually sounds rather similar to the old proprietary license that Microsoft used to use (not sure if they still do anymore).

> A hackable text editor for the 21st century I'll fix: A proprietary (unhackable) text editor that only runs on OS X. I imagine that web developers will drool over this.

fafner 13y ago

And it reports data to Google... http://atom.io/packages/metrics http://atom.io/packages/metrics

callumjones 13y ago
"If you do not want this information reported, disable this package from the Metrics section of the Settings view (cmd-,)."
- davesque 13y ago
  Why should I have to opt out of metric gathering in a freaking text editor??
  - squintychino 13y ago
    Because they made the program. So it's their decision. If you want a program that turns this off by default, please feel free to create your own program with this feature disabled.
    - lispm 13y ago
      FAIL. A text editor with this default is just wrong.
    - pritambaral 13y ago
      > please feel free to create your own program with this feature disabled. I could do that very easily, if Atom were FOSS.
    - fauigerzigerk 13y ago
      It's their decision to track their own users by default. It's anyone's decision to criticize them for their decision. That's healthy and much more efficient than for everyone to start creating their own text editors, payment systems, airlines or poultry farms. I for one am more than fed up with hunting down and keeping up-to-date with settings for tracking "features" in every single piece of software I use.
    - fafner 13y ago
      And it's my decision not to use it. Why would I want a non-free (as in beer and speech) editor which reports data to Google, only works on Mac, and lacks any unique features? I don't understand the hype created on HN about it...
toddmorey 13y ago
But in fairness, they've fully listed the data being collected. I'm actually very comfortable with them collecting these metrics (though I'm glad there's a way to turn it off just the same). - A unique identifier that is generated by computing the SHA-1 of the machine's MAC address. - The screen width and height - The version of Atom being used - The name of each item opened in a pane such as EditorView, SettingsView, and MarkdownPreviewView - The amount of time the current window was open for - The amount of time the current window to took to load - The amount of time the app took to launch
- cstuder 13y ago
  I'm almost comfortable with the choice of metrics, except for: >> The name of each item opened in a pane such as EditorView, SettingsView, and MarkdownPreviewView << Why would they need to know my filenames?
  - gnud 13y ago
    I _think_ they're talking about the actual 'atoms' - that is the editor components. So the data that will be sent to google is 'EditorView is open', not 'EditorView contains these files'. I might be wrong though.
    - gjtorikian 13y ago
      You're absolutely right. We don't track individual filenames or data.

subsection1h 13y ago

> A proprietary (unhackable) text editor I developed some packages for HomeSite in the 90s. When HomeSite was integrated into Dreamweaver and development ceased, I realized that I had wasted my time developing HomeSite packages and that I should never again devote my time to extending closed-source software. Emacs has served me well ever since.

kneath 13y ago

Lots of assumptions here.

pbiggar 13y ago

Where are you getting this from? I can see all the source at https://github.com/atom https://github.com/atom. Every repo I checked has the MIT license.

sheetjs 13y ago
Can you build a fully functional version of Atom just from those repos? To compare, Apple releases source code for some components, but they definitely don't distribute "/System/Library/Extensions/Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext".
- Goopplesoft 13y ago
  I thought that file was a joke until I checked it and it actually exists. For those (like me) wondering what it does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%E2%80%93Intel_architecture#Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X.kext http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%E2%80%93Intel_architectur...
  - xentronium 13y ago
    Oh my, "DSMOS has arrived" line (and subsequent freeze) is gonna haunt me for years.
lobster_johnson 13y ago
The source of the actual editor isn't public.
- pritambaral 13y ago
  From IRC: <EvanDotPro> it will be open source, and other platforms, when it's out of beta
chimeracoder 13y ago
From Tom Preston-Warner himself: http://discuss.atom.io/t/why-is-atom-closed-source/82/8 http://discuss.atom.io/t/why-is-atom-closed-source/82/8 > Atom won't be closed source, but it won't be open source either. It will be somewhere inbetween, making it easy for us to charge for Atom while still making the source available under a restrictive license so you can see how everything works. We haven't finalized exactly how this will work yet. We will have full details ready for the official launch. However one tries to soften that language, that translates to a proprietary license of any standard definition of "proprietary"[0] [0] It actually sounds rather similar to the old proprietary license that Microsoft used to use (not sure if they still do anymore).