Disclaimer: potential standard-inclined content, reader discretion advised.
The following anti-monkeypatch standard-inclined mindset originated from the frustrations from prolonged exposure to and usage of semi-standard technologies, e.g. code editors, operating systems, desktop workspace, etc.
Opensource is good. As a movement to empowering developers, enabling innovations, and receiving critique to gradually agree on an industry standard - there is simply no alternative of opensource. Our world runs on opensource! However the aspect of opensource regarding its very nature, that is, most opensource projects do not receive the funding they deserve and may lack a strong leadership to govern the project. This may yield a project deficit in supporting its ever-evolving consumer base. Opensource software projects witnessed tremendous success in the early ages of commercial computer software - this is beyond doubts. However in the contemporary era, in which the complexity, diversity, and expectations of software is vital - a distinction is to be made between FAANG-backed or Fortune 500-backed opensource initiatives and other individual/communitarian ones.
This was a regular day in the life of mine as a Software Engineer - however, yet again, I caught myself searching for decentralized extensions individually developed on an average of 9 years ago for Vim/Neovim. Similar to Visual Studio Code, however... (checking vscode vs vim user count worldwide...)
(In a survey of 86,544 responses...)
| Code editor | % Users |
|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code | 73.71% |
| Visual Studio | 28.43% |
| IntelliJ IDEA | 26.82% |
| Vim | 22.29% |
| Neovim | 11.86% |
... more likely that, Visual Studio Code extensions will be better 🙃. Plus, centralized "verified" extension support provide an upper hand in some cases.
In reddit, a question was asked, why shouldn't I use Vim? Arguments against Vim. The first reply received 92 upvotes. Feb 2019.
"Every once in a while you'll go through the rabbit hole of addng something cool, configuring another plugin, or changing colorscheme/syntax - that you forget doing actual productive work."
(This is too true! May I be forgiven! Unbelievable! Feels sad!)
One of the reply to the first reply was:
"That's why I started relearning vanilla Vim. Native Vim. Without plugins. For Java, Go, Swift - I use JetBrains products with ideavim [a plugin that enables Vim keybindings]."
I almost feel like taking one step further,
"I may just use Visual Studio Code, instead of Vim. Maybe Windows 11, instead of a Linux distribution that was created by a guy over a decade ago. Maybe the magic developed by JetBrains. Maybe Slack, instead of Matrix. Maybe Microsoft 365 w/ Copilot, instead of LibreOffice. These are products well-built and polished and proven through rigorous testing and extensive real-world usage.
Maybe, just maybe, I need to learn to appreciate professionals investing their time and life and company to build these incredible, impossible products."
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