Visual Studio Code is everywhere. Look at developer screenshots, conference talks, or GitHub coding streams—it's VS Code. Two years after launch, Microsoft's editor has become the default choice for JavaScript development. The speed of adoption is remarkable, and the strategy is worth examining.
How We Got Here
The JavaScript editor landscape used to be fragmented:
- Sublime Text: Fast, lightweight, but shareware ($70)
- Atom: GitHub's editor, free, slow, but customizable
- WebStorm: Powerful IDE, expensive ($129/year)
- Vim/Emacs: Power users only
- Notepad++: Windows only, basic
No clear winner. Developers had to choose between speed, features, and cost. Then VS Code launched in April 2015 and rapidly improved.