# terminal-code

5 Hacker News commenters recommended terminal-code and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Brings VS Code into the terminal, which people welcome. Critics note it is Electron-based and streams video, not true SSH.

## Why people recommend it

- Appealing VS Code option on Linux (1 comments): "pretty much the first thing close to a reason why I would consider installing anything Microsoft related on my Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49406940))
- Fits a long-held need (1 comments): "That's exactly what I am looking for several years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49403294))
- Praised as a fantastic idea (2 comments): "Fantastic idea! You've my vote mate, good work!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49368458)) "idea seems to be fantastic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49406746))

## What people warn about

- Electron app seen as bloated (2 comments): "This just embeds electron and shoves it into the terminal instead of the native frontend." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49404715)) "bloated electron app running over bloated graphics stack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49406966))
- Video streaming instead of SSH (2 comments): "this is basically VS Code over RDP (uses video streaming over kitty protocol)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49403038)) "Using kitty's graphics protocol is not ssh nor "works over ssh"." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375943))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Zed](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zed.md): 700 recommend
- [GNU Emacs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/emacs.md): 648 recommend
- [Vim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vim.md): 513 recommend
- [Visual Studio Code](https://hackerapproved.com/p/visual-studio-code.md): 485 recommend
- [Neovim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/neovim.md): 295 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "terminal-code", https://hackerapproved.com/p/terminal-code/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).