# Visual Studio Code 485 Hacker News commenters recommended Visual Studio Code and 547 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 2 years (13 owners). **Verdict:** A free editor with a huge extension ecosystem that works the same on every OS, though critics cite extension security risks, Electron sluggishness and a constant push toward AI features. ## Why people recommend it - Huge extension ecosystem (5 comments): "You get extensions, familiarity and most importantly, don't waste valuable time on the boring stuff which VSCode has already implemented." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45969229)) "they're probably missing a ton of useful capabilities and are incompatible with all the VSC extensions everyone's gotten used to" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45970542)) "VSCode is a breath of fresh air. The only things I’m not using it for are languages that don’t have extensions yet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45945423)) - Consistent across operating systems (4 comments): "VSCode did help us get to the point where I can use it on Linux, MacOS, or Windows and have a lot interoperability." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47992318)) "native menu bar, native save/open, but a core UI kind of unto itself that is consistent across Mac and Windows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48630845)) "we have a top notch user experience that's consistent across operating systems and desktop environments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45812879)) - Pairs well with AI agents (4 comments): "You can use VSCode / Zed, run any CLI coding agent in the integrated terminal and review changes using the Git working tree diff view the IDE offers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49137376)) "Great for when you need to run commands for the current project but still want to chat in the sidebar or edit something else while it runs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46877574)) "I'm personally switched from (n)vim to vscode for this reason, so I can now fiddle with a custom agent setup." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704678)) - Fast for an Electron app (4 comments): "It shows the engineering effort that the team puts into it, which is why it is one of the few Electron based apps that is bearable to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49196031)) "There can be some perf issues if you don't exclude node_modules and build outputs from search, but I've never seen it crash." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49533777)) "The only time VSCode gets slow is if you use a bunch of poorly written plugins, which hasn't been an issue for me in years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47950650)) ## What people warn about - Extension and workspace security risks (8 comments): "There is just no reality in which vscode with electron running as user account on a bare machine can be secure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46720877)) "Microsoft's introduction of 2 hour latencies for vscode extension installations to mitigate the ongoing worm spread is absolutely bonkers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48471950)) "They marked it as low severity, fixed it silently, didn't acknowledge that it had security impact and did not provide me any credit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48385519)) - Electron app feels slow, heavy (3 comments): "Even then, I don't see why developers should be forced to have better computers just to run things like editors." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45975104)) "What's hostile is the VSCode (and Codex and Claude) makers developing tools that basically DoS a system because they assume it will operate only on single-user machines." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49828689)) "The Visual Studio code user experience is bad - in part because it is an electron app that is not as snappy as native GUI frameworks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45817468)) - Setup and configuration take effort (3 comments): "Nothing feels obvious or simple, and trying to work in Python or embedded C++ compared to using Jetbrains tools feels like I'm missing so much." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47031846)) "Getting all my python envs and configuring everything in VSCode took me much longer than the 15-20 minutes it takes to read vimtutor." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46861167)) "I cannot stand VSCode - even if I configure it to my liking I am unable to make it look or feel the way that makes me feel at home." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46368607)) - Updates focused on AI (2 comments): "this kind of behavior is only going to ramp up as Microsoft seeks to get a return on their AI investments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47990829)) "For at least a couple of years it's been nothing but AI, I am happy to ignore updates and should probably just turn them off now." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46403209)) ## 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 - [Neovim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/neovim.md): 295 recommend - [VS Code](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vs-code.md): 273 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Visual Studio Code", https://hackerapproved.com/p/visual-studio-code/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).