It is compared to VS Code, which is an application end-users can download and run. I fail to understand the distinction. Is a toolset not software that can be run in this context?
VSCode is intended as the end product, a full-featured IDE that's suited for virtually any project, but cannot be customized beyond theming and extensions.
Theia is not intended to be the end product. I suppose it can be, but Theia is an IDE platform for you to build and customize on top of.
For instance, let's say that you wanted an IDE that fully supports quantum computing languages and workflows such as Microsoft's Q# and some python libraries. Rather than starting from nothing, Theia provides a fully-equipped IDE for you to work with and customize however you want, since it's entirely open source. With VSCode, this simply isn't possible beyond extensions since it's closed source.
It is compared to VS Code, which is an application end-users can download and run. I fail to understand the distinction. Is a toolset not software that can be run in this context?
VSCode is intended as the end product, a full-featured IDE that's suited for virtually any project, but cannot be customized beyond theming and extensions.
Theia is not intended to be the end product. I suppose it can be, but Theia is an IDE platform for you to build and customize on top of.
For instance, let's say that you wanted an IDE that fully supports quantum computing languages and workflows such as Microsoft's Q# and some python libraries. Rather than starting from nothing, Theia provides a fully-equipped IDE for you to work with and customize however you want, since it's entirely open source. With VSCode, this simply isn't possible beyond extensions since it's closed source.
VSCode is open source.
github.com/microsoft/vscode