Comment by valicord
4 months ago
I'm sure you're being sincere here but this really reads like that famous HN comment about "who needs Dropbox when ftp exists". The reason vscode is popular is not because it does something impossible to do otherwise, but because it does those things out of the box with a friendly UI.
I think you missed the issue with the Dropbox comment. Look back at it. He talks about using Linux, FTP, curlftps, SVN, and doing a network mount.
The comment isn't actually even talking about providing the same service, so they mention emailing themselves files and usb drives.
The problem was there was a big technical hurdle to locally network mount a file system. Especially across OSes. It's even harder to do it non locally. Sure, it's not hard if you're familiar with that stuff. Sure, it's not hard to learn if you're comfortable in the terminal. Sure, today you can use rclone. BUT that's not a tool my grandma can use.
On the other hand, we're not talking about tools my grandma can use. We're talking about tools a programmer can use.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
But we are programmers. I think there is a difference between expect John Accountant who doesn't trust his computer to set up RSync and a server, and a Programmer who is already going to spend a good chunk of their day in a terminal windiow anyways.
Dude I'm tired. Tired of having to learn some stupid new UI paradigm just because.
I really really wish there was ONE standard orthodoxy with regards to UI and how programs work and how we get around them.
Instead we have these clowns constantly inventing new ones. I love learning things and tweaking things but I have limited bandwidth and I am so over micromanaging my PC
For the record I know and love vi. But as I get older I find myself yearning more for the cathedral than the bazaar