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Posted inDevelopment Update

To Favor Microsoft VS Code, Microsoft's GitHub is Killing GitHub's
Atom Editor

We all knew this day would be coming sooner or later.
[svg][eaac712a52fb]by AbhishekJune 10, 2022June 10, 2022

Share this:

[svg]Microsoft kills GitHub's Atom

Coder, coder in the hall, which is the best editor of them all!

Sorry for the really cheesy opening line. I could not prevent myself
from writing that. Just as we all could not prevent the certain
demise of the most loved open source code editor of the last decade,
Atom.

A brief history of Atom

Atom, released in 2014 by the then independent Git Hub team, was a
huge hit among the programmers.

Its neat UI, features, and numerous add-ons made it the hot favorite
of the developers.

It continued its popular run despite getting tough competition from
Microsoft's recently open-sourced VS Code editor.

Atom's loyal fanbase didn't budge despite the rising popularity of
the VS Code until Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018.

People started wondering how long will Microsoft continue developing
two similar projects that don't make any money for it directly.

In the last four years, it did seem that Atom was losing its charm.
It didn't have any significant feature development while VS Code got
more attractive as features after features landed in every release.

The writing was on the wall. Microsoft branded VS Code was being
favored over Atom.

Though I don't have any stats to back my claim, it did seem that
Atom's userbase was declining in the last couple of years. VS Code is
like the default editor for young developers.

It was only time that Microsoft pulled the plug on Atom and it did
that finally.

GitHub discontinues Atom

On June 8, Microsoft-owned GitHub announced that it is going to
archive the entire Atom project on December 15, 2022.

    ...we've decided to retire Atom in order to further our commitment
    to bringing fast and reliable software development to the cloud
    via Microsoft Visual Studio Code and GitHub Codespaces.

The stated reason is the same we all know; "Atom has not had
significant feature development for the past several years" and
"focus on enhancing the developer experience in the cloud with GitHub
Codespaces".

The Atom project was more than just an editor though. For good or
bad, whatever you feel like, Atom also gave birth to Electron
framework.

    It's worth reflecting that Atom has served as the foundation for
    the Electron framework, which paved the way for the creation of
    thousands of apps, including Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Slack,
    and our very own GitHub Desktop. However, reliability, security,
    and performance are core to GitHub, and in order to best serve
    the developer community, we are archiving Atom to prioritize
    technologies that enable the future of software development.

Atom dies a slow death and its fork will likely meet the same fate

Atom is open source so it's not going to 'rest in peace' immediately.
It will be resurrected (read forked) for sure.

However, even if someone forks the project and continues to keep it
alive, it's not going to match up to VS Code anymore. At best, it
will get a few bug fixes and minor new features. That's not entirely
bad for the hard-core Atom lovers but it won't attract newer, younger
coders.

Ultimately, the forked projects will also be shut down eventually.
It's not possible for a couple of volunteer developers to match the
might of a billion-dollar organization with huge infrastructure. Atom
won't get compared to VS Code any longer.

Atom will be missed. Maybe not by as many people as it would have
been if it was to discontinue in 2018. The noose was tightened around
its neck slowly and we all witnessed it.

Anyway, are you still using Atom? Will you move to VS Code or choose
some other non-Microsoft editor?

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