Atom Editor is 859.8 MB on Disk (This is Ridiculous!)

[nelsonic]

I know that "all software is optional" #3 but on a computer that doesn't have a built-in editor,
people have to start somewhere ...

I just downloaded the latest version of Atom from https://atom.io as recommended by this README.md it took ages to download because the App archive is 278 MB:

While it was downloading I thought: "278Mb for a Text Editor ... that feels large...!"
But That was only the tip of the hard drive hogging iceberg! 🙄

Once unzipped the Atom App is 859.8 MB "on disk":

That is bigger than many Linux Distributions (Operating System)!!!!!! 😮

It might not be a problem for people who have a brand new Mac,
but for people who don't have a particularly generous hard drive, it might be too high a "cost"!
not to mention downloading the App on a lower connection speed might be bandwidth-prohibitive!

I think we might need to encourage people to use a more lightweight Text Editor. 💡
Or even consider going full in-browser! 🤔

What are the alternatives? Vim? Emacs?

[nelsonic]

Apparently other people are incensed by this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18503942 🙄

[pavanjadhaw]

I would suggest using vscode as it is widely adopted and praised by dev community and fast and lightweight too.
https://code.visualstudio.com/

[nelsonic]

@pavanjadhaw thanks for sharing. ❤️
I use VSCode as my "third editor" when I want to edit something quickly that isn't my "main" project.
I agree that it's a really good editor; there is no question that it's a good product.
My only "gripe" with VSCode is that it sends "telemetry data" to Microsoft by default.
see: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/80d8wu/just_realised_that_visual_studio_code_sends/

This means Microsoft knows what code you are writing at all times.
While I have "nothing to hide", I feel that on principal, a for-profit company should not do this.
And having it enabled by default is a "Dark UX" pattern. i.e. it's "sneaky" and not transparent.

[pavanagrawal123]

@nelsonic Vscodium exists if you are worried about that!

[nelsonic]

Also, Atom burns through battery:

We need a much better way!

[nelsonic]

atom/atom#20772

[nelsonic]

See: #37

[nelsonic]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34010065

[nelsonic]

https://medium.com/commitlog/electron-is-cancer-b066108e6c32