Coder, coder in the room, who is the best editor of all!
Sorry for the really cheesy opening line. I couldn’t help but write this. Just as we couldn’t prevent the certain demise of the most beloved open-source code editor of the past decade, Atom.
A Brief History of Atom
Atom, released in 2014 by the then independent team at Git Hub, was a huge hit among programmers.
Its neat user interface, features and numerous add-ons have made it a favorite of developers.
It continued its popular run despite fierce competition from Microsoft’s recently open-source VS code editor.
Atom’s loyal fanbase didn’t budge despite the growing popularity of VS Code until Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018.
People have started wondering how long Microsoft will continue to develop two similar projects that don’t directly earn it any money.
Over the past four years, it seemed like Atom was losing his charm. It didn’t have any significant feature development while VS Code got more appealing as features came in each release.
The writing was on the wall. Microsoft-branded VS Code was preferred over Atom.
Although I don’t have any stats to back up my claim, it seems that Atom’s user base has been shrinking over the past two years. VS Code is like the default editor for young developers.
It was high time for Microsoft to unplug Atom and it finally did.
GitHub shuts down Atom
On June 8, GitHub, owned by Microsoft announcement that it will archive the entire Atom Project on December 15, 2022.
…we have decided to retire Atom in order to continue our commitment to bringing fast and reliable software development to the cloud through Microsoft Visual Studio Code and GitHub Codespaces.
The reason given is the same that we all know; “Atom has had no significant feature development in the last few years” and “is focused on improving the developer experience in the cloud with GitHub Codespaces.”
The Atom project was more than just an editor, however. For better or for worse, depending on your desires, Atom also gave birth to the Electron framework.
It should be noted that Atom served as the basis for the Electron framework, which paved the way for the creation of thousands of applications, including Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Slack and our own GitHub desktop. However, reliability, security, and performance are at the heart of GitHub, and in order to better serve the developer community, we are archiving Atom to prioritize technologies that enable the future of software development.
Atom dies a slow death and his fork will likely meet the same fate
Atom is open source so it won’t “rest in peace” immediately. He will be resurrected (read forked) for sure.
However, even if someone forks the project and continues to keep it alive, it will no longer match VS Code. At best, it will get a few bugfixes and minor new features. That’s not entirely bad for die-hard Atom enthusiasts, but it won’t appeal to newer, younger coders.
In the end, forked projects will also be closed eventually. It is not possible for a few volunteer developers to match the power of a billion dollar organization with a huge infrastructure. Atom will not be compared to VS Code Longer.
Atom will be missed. Maybe not by as many people as he would have been if he had to stop in 2018. The noose slowly tightened around his neck and we all witnessed it.
Anyway, are you still using Atom? Are you going to switch to VS Code or choose another non-Microsoft editor?
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