Visual Studio Code
Free, extensible source-code editor from Microsoft, built on Electron.
Commenters like it for remote development over SSH and WSL,12345 for running lighter than JetBrains IDEs,6789 and for its built-in AI agent and change-review features.10111213 The most common complaint is heavy RAM and battery use from its Electron base,1415161718 and some dislike its push of Copilot and other AI features.192021
Why people recommend it
Remote development · 3
The SSH, WSL and remote features keep the editor UI local while using remote machine resources.
“Vscode remoting lets you use the local machine for the editor UX, and the remote machine resources for LSPs, debuggers, build, etc.”
“The client/server split of vscode felt superior over the ssh connection”
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“Basically every issue they seem to have is solved by using VSCode + Remote development”
AI integration · 3
Copilot chat, agent mode and the built-in LLM harness are liked, including for reviewing model changes and using any model.
“I love VSCode built in LLM harness.”
“nowhere near as good for reviewing changes as the VSCode AI features”
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“I use Vscode copilot chat because in the before-times I was perfectly happy with vscode.”
Lighter than JetBrains · 3
Users moved from IntelliJ, WebStorm and other JetBrains IDEs because VS Code runs faster and uses less memory.
“I ended up switching to using VSCode because it just runs a lot better and uses less memory.”
“Meanwhile, VS Code just kept getting better, addressing the complaints I had with it while staying fast.”
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“VS Code gives me pretty much everything I need for my daily work without demanding too much from my system”
Good defaults · 3
It works well out of the box with a built-in terminal and simpler Vim-style bindings, needing little customization.
“VSCode is pretty good out of the box, with terminal access and everything built in.”
“This is why I prefer MacOS+VSCode these days, which comes with good defaults and simpler VIM-style bindings.”
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“I defected to that. Yes yes, electron, Microsoft, I know... but it's just so damn convenient.”
Extensions · 2
Its rich plugin ecosystem covers users' needs, and extensions are missing from VSCodium's registry.
“These days I use VS Code which is more than fine for my needs”
“Just disable telemetry in VSCode and you're good.”
Handy features · 3
Commenters single out the command palette, version control tree view, tab handling and Go auto-imports.
“command-driven (e.g. command palette of VSCode)”
“VSCode's version control interface is reasonably close to a standard, and I love the tree view there.”
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“I love the import system auto-adding stuff inside of vscode when I need it. just slick.”
Caveats and dissent
Resource use · 3
Some find the Electron-based editor bloated and hungry for RAM and battery, and switched to Neovim, Zed or Emacs.
“I got tired of VSCode eating up battery and RAM”
“a bloated, sluggish text editor like VSCode and IntelliJ”
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“This is the reason why I switched from VSCode to nvim”
AI push · 3
Copilot injection, frequent AI-focused updates and AI co-author tagging on commits by default annoy some users.
“I’m annoyed by the seemingly daily messages to update VS Code.”
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“Controversial default to say the least.”
Code navigation · 2
Some say navigation and refactoring trail IntelliJ, especially for Go, and that it is file-focused rather than project-focused.
“VSCode, especially for golang, is terrible.”
“I hate VS Code (even though I use it regularly on Linux Mint) because it's basically "File Focused" not "Project Focused"”
Neglected issues · 2
Some report long-ignored usability issues and crashes during file search on large codebases.
“a usability requirement so basic can be left neglected for years altogether”
“Vscode on my m2 Mac routinely crashed when doing file search.”
Code review · 2
Some find reviewing AI-generated code in VS Code increasingly annoying.
“reviewing code in VSCode is starting to get annoying”
“reviewing code in VSCode is starting to get annoying”
Trust · 2
Some distrust Microsoft's editor; one commenter disables telemetry before using it.
“I increasingly treat any closed-source software (and even some open-source--vscode for instance) as hostile and untrusted.”
“Just disable telemetry in VSCode and you're good.”
Often compared with
4 moved from Zed to Visual Studio Code
18 moved from Visual Studio Code to Zed
1 moved from Neovim to Visual Studio Code
6 moved from Visual Studio Code to NeovimVim26 comments mention both
4 moved from Vim to Visual Studio Code
2 moved from Visual Studio Code to Vim
1 moved from Emacs to Visual Studio Code
2 moved from Visual Studio Code to Emacs
3 moved from Cursor to Visual Studio Code
3 moved from Sublime Text to Visual Studio Code
1 moved from Visual Studio Code to Sublime Text
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“I use VS Code in a beefy Codespace, with GitHub Copilot (Opus 4.5).”
Threads where it came up
- Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026) 9 mentions
- I switched from VSCode to Zed 8 mentions
- Zed is 1.0 6 mentions
- JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025 5 mentions
- VSCode's SSH Agent Is Bananas (2025) 4 mentions
- Fine, I'll build my own text editor 4 mentions
Also written as VSCode, Visual Studio Code. Data: visual-studio-code.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 52
“While I'm not a big fan of VSCode”
“pretty much the only reason I have VSCode open anymore is to view the diffs of what my agents are working on.”
“you can now show webpages on your text editor which is built on top of a web browser rendering engine”
“I see Word and VS Code.”
“Open on my desktop right now: Slack, Outlook, Zoom, Windows Terminal, Edge, Claude, Obsidian, whatever the Windows image viewer is called, Cursor, and VS Code”
“I like their UI, lends itself well to projects and so on.”
“I switched to VS Code”
“after that, VS Code for its extensions”
“I have to live in vscode to get things done”
“I have Visual Studio Code running next to my browser”
“I also use VS Code where I have a few sessions in separate panes on one screen.”
“VSCode's remote features became good enough that I didn't really need vim anymore”
“a usability requirement so basic can be left neglected for years altogether”
“I was a Vim user that switched to VS Code (for reasons)”
“Why would I use it over vs, say, vs code?”
“Debugging worked quite good.”
“Furthermore for Visual Studio Code it lists only IntelliJ IDEA as an alternative.”
“I loved just having VS Code connect to it”
“I ended up switching to using VSCode because it just runs a lot better and uses less memory.”
“I switched to vscode because the complexity and runtime overhead of intellij were no longer justified with Claude writing most of the code.”
“VSC is great”
“Meanwhile, VS Code just kept getting better, addressing the complaints I had with it while staying fast.”
“VSCode has been eating at their users for years now.”
“we use vs code with these extensions and wsl2”
“I do still have a Visual Studio / VSCode color settings file”
“I use Vscode copilot chat because in the before-times I was perfectly happy with vscode.”
“i did start using vscode for $DAYJOB since our devex team supports it (has good vim keybinds at least)”
“I increasingly treat any closed-source software (and even some open-source--vscode for instance) as hostile and untrusted.”
“We use codex in vscode.”
“What if you used something like VSCode if you don't like Xcode?”
“The Javascript/full browser engine editors (VSCode, Atom, et al.) seemed so wasteful”
“I generally find it overwhelming”
“I've been using this new UI for a while and didn't even notice it was different”
“using Typst in VSCode to create bespoke invites”
“Just disable telemetry in VSCode and you're good.”
“Vscode remoting lets you use the local machine for the editor UX, and the remote machine resources for LSPs, debuggers, build, etc.”
“now I use it as an easier ssh client w/ file editing”
“VS Code over SSH is a good step in that direction”
“So I ran out of patience and switched to VS Code”
“I wouldn't open a 100MB logfile in VS Code”
“I'm back to VsCode plus Copilot Pro.”
“I love VSCode built in LLM harness.”
“VSCode SSH extension is one of the most widely developer-used proof against this.”
“annoyed by VS Code injecting copilot and other "helpers"”
“I got tired of VSCode eating up battery and RAM”
“VS Code gives me pretty much everything I need for my daily work without demanding too much from my system”
“This is the reason why I switched from VSCode to nvim”
“I’m annoyed by the seemingly daily messages to update VS Code.”
“Controversial default to say the least.”
“The client/server split of vscode felt superior over the ssh connection”
“a bloated, sluggish text editor like VSCode and IntelliJ”
“nowhere near as good for reviewing changes as the VSCode AI features”