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Created February 27, 2014 20:00
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Five Reasons You Should Avoid Github's Atom Editor

5 Reasons You Should Avoid Github's Atom Editor

1. There's a Big Hoopla

It must be a passing thing. Just trendy teenagers hopping on the bandwagon. Another fad from an industry that is addicted to it. It must be these things, despite Github's six years of work on it before release. It must be worth avoiding despite the fact that obvious thought, time, and love has been put into the project.

2. It doesn't do X!!!

Yeah, it doesn't do X. It does Y and Z really well, but because it doesn't do X yet it must be eschewed. End of story.

3. It isn't (fully) Open Source

Why would anyone make software in today's day and age that has some sort of business model? For shame, Github, for shame. Github - we know you really grok open source AND have also built an amazing business. But combining the two? Your efforts to create the next generation of text editing is just unthinkable.

4. It's a Blatant Rip-off of Sublime Text

Yeah, Atom is just like Sublime Text! Well, except for the core of it being web technology, instantly hackable, and javascript and node being the language for extensions and plugins, rather than python. Oh, and wait until you hear this: Github even ripped off VIM with a plugin called vim-mode!!!

5. Atom Sends Data to Google Analytics

Aghast! You wily Github. How dare you, DARE YOU, try and collect statistical and diagnostic data that will probably be used for improving the product?!!

Conclusion

Hush yourself. Hug yourself. Breathe - it will all be okay.

@cdharrison
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Where's the Like button damnit?

@lodestone
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I don't know where the Like button is, but here's a monkey: 🐒

@lodestone
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All that said, and here I am back in MacVim already.

@antoniobrandao
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loolllllll that was awesome

especially the monkey thing

@antoniobrandao
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here's a panda for you 🐼

@xiconet
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xiconet commented May 9, 2014

I don't find this post funny. Half a GB to (fail to) build a text editor, which anyway would probably not run on winxp. Do we really need this?

@servel333
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  1. Just because it's trendy now doesn't mean it's bad. Most things that stay popular for a long time start trendy.
  2. What is X. Litterally everything doesn't do everything. It's a tool, and like all tools it's good at some stuff and not so good at other stuff.
  3. Lots of software is not open source. And while I agree that open source is better for the community overall and I like the idea of open source, that doesn't speak to the quality of the product. I choose to use some open source software and I choose to use some closed source software for various reasons on both sides.
  4. I agree it's just like Sublime. If you don't like sublime, you probably won't like Atom. If you like Sublime, you probably will like Atom. Again, that doesn't speak to the quality of Atom.
  5. Ok, I didn't know that and that should probably be more obvious so that users who don't want that can make an educated choice.

None of your points say if the product is specifically good. I'm not sure if I like Atom or not myself and I'm still trying it now and then. I don't know if it's good or not in my opinion, however I think that it's a product that can appeal to some developers and I don't think it's all bad.

It seems like you are bashing it because you don't like it, and that's fine, but be specific so we can all make educated decisions after reading your rant.

@arjankuijpers
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sounds like jealousy to me, its great if you give it a try..
and itsn't it nice to have a free opensource code editor that is just as great as SublimeText.
(i'm not trying to bash here)

@aaroncaito
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i think some missed the /s

@slayerfat
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quite

@matanox
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matanox commented Dec 7, 2015

License looks open source to me - https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/LICENSE.md
Even the package file says MIT
Where's the catch?

@nick3499
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The main thing is: Atom is a Github manifestation. While Github is a coding resource. Microsoft has better things to spend their multi-billion dollar R&D budget on instead of improving their browser. Business model jazz aside, Github's own IDE seems to have potential.

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ghost commented Sep 26, 2017

Guys, try Atom again. It's so much better and faster nowadays. Sure, Visual Code is nice too but there are still some features i miss there.

Oh.... and trendy teenagers are busy with bashing instead help improve and build a product like Atom ;-)

@kenos1
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kenos1 commented Mar 9, 2022

whats with all of this i use emacs

@BallerIndustries
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Sarcasm in 2014, legit in 2023.

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