I do almost all my development on JetBrains IDEs (Rust, Python, Kotlin). IME they are unmatched for giving you code insights and suggested fixes (combined with "click here to do that") out of the box. But they are absolute resource hogs and I don't trust that they (or their best features) will always remain free.
I've tried to get into neovim a few times. It's fine for basic editing and I use it a bit when I am ssh'd into a box without a graphical environment, or I'm just not bothered booting up a full IDE. But the UI still feels less intuitive to me than JetBrains, and by the time I've installed and configured the various plugins that should give me anything approaching JetBrains' functionality the whole setup feels very fragile, like it could break at any moment and I wouldn't easily be able to fix it. In the regard, Helix having more stuff OOTB feels like it could be a definite improvement.
25 years ago, naive me thought we'd eventually figure out how to use text editors as components within other applications like IDEs. A protocol would evolve to let IDEs and editors work together. The same protocol would allow every text box in a browser to be your favorite editor.
LSP is much more practical, but much less than I hoped for.
I've been using JetBrains IDEs for the last 11 years. Before that I used Emacs and Sublime Text. I've tried VSCode, Zed, and others. There's just no comparison on the code insights and code manipulation tools. LSP is far behind what JetBrains can do, although it's slowly catching up these days. I still use VSCode from time to time for other languages like Zig.
I've never experienced sluggishness, but, I also keep track of how much memory it's using and ensure I don't run low. It's clearly a huge resource hog, but I'm also glad for that. It's using all of my computers resources to analyze the code in amazing ways which help me develop fast. Emacs, Sublime Text, and others were all about typing speed. Fast development goes far beyond just typing speed.
I'm also on the jetbrains train, but I stopped using it for a while because they're sluggish. An editor's interface should never lock up, an editor should never have popups that demand focus, etc but both intellij and vs code do this.
At the moment I'm on VS Code again because Sublime Text isn't keeping up to date anymore (its ecosystem has mostly been dormant since 2014 or 2016) and Zed is still fully in development and doesn't have some of the extensions and tools that I sometimes use in VS Code.
If I were to go back to e.g. Java I'd probably use IntelliJ again, but then, the enterprise I work for would be shelling out for it.
I ended up switching to Zed after VS Code lost connection to my dev VM and locked up one too many times. I am not sure what the issue is- maybe the VM is just running out of memory and nuking the VSCode daemon? But either way, Zed has not had this problem at all.
I never had much problem with feeling VSCode was slow (outside of those lockups) but Zed surprised me by feeling actively fast. I do miss several extensions a lot though!
> I never had much problem with feeling VSCode was slow (outside of those lockups) but Zed surprised me by feeling actively fast.
well said. this is exactly how I felt too. when other folks ask why zed, and i tell them it's fast - i couldn't quite capture that feeling but this comment nails it.
Zed actively feels faster than VSCode or equivalent editors; but once you get comfortable with Zed's speed, it's hard to go back.
I had the same problem with pycharm, it was basically unusable on my Lenovo Yoga for anything more than text editing (so anything that actually makes pycharm interesting).
I don't know if it's just my hardware or some software issue, but I was very disappointed.
> But they are absolute resource hogs and I don't trust that they (or their best features) will always remain free.
I use quite a few of their IDEs for various use cases (Java, .NET, Python, Go, JS projects and some DB interaction) and ended up just buying their ultimate pack. For individual use, it was like 360 EUR with VAT per year that went down to 216 EUR by year 3 of staying subscribed. Just so I wouldn't have to deal with any artificial limitations and could use all of their tools instead of some Frankenstein setup where I have to install all sorts of plugins into IntelliJ.
Their AI tools are also pretty decent (Junie was lovely to use, despite the rate limits), the idea behind the free Fleet editor was also cool but it kinda sucked in comparison to VSC. That said, if the JetBrains IDEs ever get enshittified, I'm throwing them into the trash and moving over to just VSC with a frickload of plugins and AI slop coding to make up for the lack of comparably good refactoring tools and such. Until then, I'm okay with paying for their software, same as I pay for MobaXTerm and support FreeFileSync etc., I guess my point is that I largely view them as a commercial product and wouldn't count on that much being or remaining free.
I've tried to get into neovim a few times. It's fine for basic editing and I use it a bit when I am ssh'd into a box without a graphical environment, or I'm just not bothered booting up a full IDE. But the UI still feels less intuitive to me than JetBrains, and by the time I've installed and configured the various plugins that should give me anything approaching JetBrains' functionality the whole setup feels very fragile, like it could break at any moment and I wouldn't easily be able to fix it. In the regard, Helix having more stuff OOTB feels like it could be a definite improvement.