I'd say Visual Studio Code is not only not an IDE, it's also lighter weight than Atom, though obviously both are Electron. VS Code lacks even basic project management, having less tooling than even Sublime for project layout/folder structure - there's no equivalent for .sublime-project or .sublime-workspace.

For the most part, the Electron UIs use a ton more RAM and are much laggier. They do not tend to handle large files well. However, in exchange for that, they offer rich features. Plugins are way better - since obviously they have HTML/CSS at their disposal.

Also, VS Code's community is very active - same for Atom - and it leads to quite high quality plugins. The plugin for Go, for example, is quite great. I've been hoping for first-class Go support in Sublime just so I'd have a direct comparison, but in comparison to the VS Code plugins for Go, Sublime feels outright clunky and hard to configure.

I'd say give it a shot. If you can get past the fact that it's undoutably slower, and some of the semantics are different, it's really nice having full code intelligence and rich plugins.

Also the feedback from the Microsoft team (they genuinely seem to put effort into VSCode), the frequent updates and new features. I love(d) ST and it was always one of the first tools I installed after a fresh OS install. My latest install does not include ST, only VSCode (Windows and Linux). I do not notice the speed in the type of work I do.

Still glad that there's an alternative available to VSCode also. :)

ok i've used VScode for a bit and feel stupid for assuming it was like previous Visual Studios. It's basically a jazzed-up Sublime Text

Vim is the best place for first class Go support. Fatih is the man! vim-go is amazing!

I'll list some pros for each which I have experienced on top of my brain. Note that for Sublime I mostly wrote in php, while the others javascript or typescript has been the main target.

Sublime Text:

* Faster, performs better which is especially visible on budget computers or when handling larger files. Sublime is really, really good in handling large files while Atom or VS Code really stinks when it comes to that.

* A lot of plugins because it was "first" of these new, great text editors. Many plugins varies in quality but they exist.

* Very easy to configure and make the editor a perfect fit for you. Atom and VS Code has the same configurability, but they simply copied Sublime on this part.

Atom:

* A LOT of plugins and extensions. Seriously. It feels like there is an extension for everything already.

* Snappy enough, easy to search and find stuff in your code.

* Great, simply great UI and font rendering. With some theming this editor is by far the most beautiful one.

VS Code:

* Snappier than Atom, but with deeper features in the box. Got stuff like git tools, intellisense and other goodies that is just missing in Atom.

* Insane support for Typescript (and perhaps other languages as well). There is simply no other editor you want to develop Typescript in. Also good for compiling .NET Core (these are the ones I've tried).

* A lot of great quality extensions from Microsoft and others. While Atom might have more extensions, I find those for VS Code often to be more quality ones and I have yet to uninstall a extension because it doesn't work or is buggy.

Personally, I prefer VS Code because it feels more snappy than Atom, has intellisense and good support for compilers like .NET and Typescript.

For me the biggest advantage of Visual Studio Code is support for Language Server Protocol [0] that makes the editor a lightweight IDE. If I'm using statically typed languages the level of support from the editor easily outweighs longer startup time.

Sublime is better when working with structureless files (plain text logs etc.).

[0]: http://langserver.org/

Atom: the bloat of an IDE with the features of a text editor. At least there are plugins :/

You got it backwards: VSCode is like Sublime or Vim with plugins, not an IDE. Don't let the name fool you, it's not a version of Visual Studio (the IDE), but a new editor project.

Atom, while also not an IDE, is way heavier, to the point of being slower than actual full fledged IDEs.

VSCode is lighter and faster than Atom. I believe you got those switched up.

edit: Whoops, didn't see a couple comments already saying this. My bad.. consider it an echo then.

Why would you consider Code an IDE any more than Atom? And what's off-putting about it being an IDE if it is?

If we draw the parallel with the old school IDE world, then I kind of see it like this:

Before we had:

    1. Delphi
    2. Visual Studio
    3. Eclipse

Now we have

    1. Sublime Text
    2. Visual Studio Code
    3. Atom

Order is significant.