Code editors & IDEsSeed poll by the operator

Microsoft VS Code vs Vim vs Neovim vs GNU Emacs

“Which editor do you actually write code in?”

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  1. Candidate 1
    AI summary — check the sourceOfficial pageShow detailsHide details

    Visual Studio Code

    Price
    Free for private or commercial use
    Platforms
    Windows, macOS, Linux; web at vscode.dev
    Account needed
    Not for core editor; GitHub sign-in for Copilot AI
    Copilot Free plan
    Monthly allowance of inline suggestions and AI credits
    Copilot Pro
    $10 USD per month; 1,500 AI credits
    Copilot Pro+
    $39 USD per month; 7,000 AI credits
    Copilot Business
    $19 USD per granted seat per month
    AI models
    Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, open-weight; BYOK
    Agent harnesses
    Copilot, Claude, Codex
    Extensions
    Visual Studio Marketplace
    • VS Code is a code editor; the Visual Studio IDE is a separate, fuller-featured product from Microsoft.
    • VS Code is a Microsoft-licensed distribution of the open source Code - OSS project (MIT); Microsoft additions such as…
    • Built-in AI features can be hidden with the chat.disableAIFeatures setting.

    Sources: Visual Studio Code home page (official) · Visual Studio Code FAQ (official) · Plans for GitHub Copilot - GitHub Docs

    Checked 2026-11-03

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  2. Candidate 2
    AI summary — check the sourceOfficial pageShow detailsHide details

    Vim

    Price
    Free (Charityware; donations requested)
    Current version
    9.2.1286 (Vim 9.2 series)
    Platforms
    Unix, MS-Windows, Macintosh, Amiga, others
    Source code
    Git repository on GitHub; source archive
    Scripting language
    Vim9 script
    Plugin scripts
    6,022 scripts, 22,544,946 downloads
    Undo
    Persistent, multi-level undo tree
    GUI backends
    GTK 2, GTK 3 (default), GTK 4 (opt-in)
    • Vim 9.2 was released on 2026-02-14, adding Vim9 script features such as enums, generic functions and tuples.
    • The GTK 4 GUI backend landed in Vim master on 2026-05-19; it is enabled with --enable-gui=gtk4 at build time and is…
    • Vim is Charityware: the license is GPL-compatible and users are asked to donate to help children in Uganda through…

    Sources: Vim online (home page) (official) · Downloading Vim (official) · About Vim (license) (official)

    Checked 2026-11-03

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  3. Candidate 3
    AI summary — check the sourceOfficial pageShow detailsHide details

    Neovim

    Latest stable version
    0.12
    Platforms
    Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, Android (Termux)
    Windows minimum
    Windows 8+
    Install methods
    Download, package manager, source build
    Configuration language
    Lua (built-in)
    Vimscript
    Supported (Vimscript v1)
    Plugin compatibility
    Vim 8.x plugins
    Language server support
    LSP (built-in)
    License
    Apache 2.0 (parts under Vim license)
    • Official FAQ gives 0.12 as the current stable release; a latest development prerelease is also published.
    • The maker describes Neovim as fully compatible with Vim's editing model and Vimscript v1.
    • Source code is hosted on GitHub; the license entry comes from the GitHub repository, not the maker's website.

    Sources: Neovim home page (official) · Neovim install documentation (official) · neovim/neovim GitHub repository

    Checked 2026-11-03

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  4. Candidate 4
    AI summary — check the sourceOfficial pageShow detailsHide details

    GNU Emacs

    Type
    Extensible text editor
    Core
    Emacs Lisp interpreter
    License
    Free/libre software
    Current version
    Emacs 31.1 (released 2026-08-24)
    Earlier major release
    Emacs 30.1 (released 2025-02-23)
    Platforms
    GNU/Linux, BSDs, Haiku, macOS, MS Windows, Android, Solaris, MS-DOS/FreeDOS
    Editing modes
    Syntax coloring for many file types
    Unicode
    Nearly all human scripts
    Built-in help
    Documentation and tutorial
    • The official release history lists Emacs 31.1 as released 2026-08-24; the cached home page text still showed Emacs…
    • The official download page lists macOS and MS Windows builds, with Homebrew and MSYS2 as install routes.
    • The official home page states Emacs was ported to Android in the 30.1 release.

    Sources: GNU Emacs - GNU Project (home page) (official) · GNU Emacs Release History (official) · GNU Emacs download - GNU Project (official)

    Checked 2026-11-03

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  • Whole poll[![Pollreal: Microsoft VS Code vs Vim vs Neovim vs GNU Emacs](https://pollreal.com/badge/ttqq3z7b.svg)](https://pollreal.com/v/ttqq3z7b?via=embed)
  • Microsoft VS Code[![Pollreal: Microsoft VS Code vs Vim vs Neovim vs GNU Emacs](https://pollreal.com/badge/ttqq3z7b.svg?for=1)](https://pollreal.com/v/ttqq3z7b?via=embed)
  • Vim[![Pollreal: Microsoft VS Code vs Vim vs Neovim vs GNU Emacs](https://pollreal.com/badge/ttqq3z7b.svg?for=2)](https://pollreal.com/v/ttqq3z7b?via=embed)
  • Neovim[![Pollreal: Microsoft VS Code vs Vim vs Neovim vs GNU Emacs](https://pollreal.com/badge/ttqq3z7b.svg?for=3)](https://pollreal.com/v/ttqq3z7b?via=embed)
  • GNU Emacs[![Pollreal: Microsoft VS Code vs Vim vs Neovim vs GNU Emacs](https://pollreal.com/badge/ttqq3z7b.svg?for=4)](https://pollreal.com/v/ttqq3z7b?via=embed)
  • Card with the gauge[![Pollreal: Microsoft VS Code vs Vim vs Neovim vs GNU Emacs](https://pollreal.com/badge/card/ttqq3z7b.svg)](https://pollreal.com/v/ttqq3z7b?via=embed)

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