The Madness of VS Code Forks: How Many Did You Install Today?

ByMuhammad Imanudin Posted on

It used to be simple. You bought a computer. You downloaded a text editor. You wrote code.

For a long time, the blue ribbon icon of Visual Studio Code (VS Code) was the only icon you needed on your taskbar. It was the champion. It defeated Sublime Text. It defeated Atom. It defeated Brackets. It became the default home for millions of developers. If you walked into a coffee shop in San Francisco, London, or Jakarta, every screen looked the same. You saw the dark grey background, the colorful text, and that familiar blue status bar at the bottom.

But today, something strange is happening. If you look at a developer’s screen now, you might see the familiar grey window, but the icon is different. Maybe it is gold. Maybe it is green. Maybe it is a stylized wave or a futuristic robot.

This is the madness of the “fork.”

Today, I woke up and realized I had five different versions of VS Code installed on my Mac. I am not alone. The developer world is currently going through a fragmentation phase that is both exciting and completely exhausting. We are drowning in choices, and every single one of them promises to be “VS Code, but better.”

Understanding the “Fork”

Before we look at the specific editors that are cluttering our hard drives, we have to understand what is happening.

Visual Studio Code is built by Microsoft. However, the core of the software is open source. It is called Code - OSS. Microsoft takes this open-source core, adds their own special branding, adds some tracking (telemetry), adds a few proprietary tools, and releases it as the “Visual Studio Code” we all know.

Because the recipe is open, anyone can take it. Anyone can cook their own version of the software.

In the past, people made forks for small reasons. They wanted to change the icon. They wanted to remove the Microsoft tracking. But in 2024 and 2025, the motivation changed. The motivation is now Artificial Intelligence.

The standard VS Code is great, but it was built before the AI boom. Newer companies believe that AI should not just be a plugin. They believe AI should be the brain of the editor. To do this, they cannot just write an extension. They have to rebuild the whole house. They have to fork the editor.

So, here we are. I decided to audit my own computer to see how deep the madness goes. Here are the forks I found myself installing, just in the last 24 hours.

The Privacy Protector: VSCodium

The first fork I installed is the “OG” (original gangster) of the group. It is called VSCodium.

I installed this because I went through a phase where I was worried about my data. I read an article about how much data Microsoft collects about my usage habits. I did not like it. I wanted a clean slate.

VSCodium is exactly what it sounds like. It is VS Code, but without the Microsoft parts. It is the raw, open-source version compiled into a usable application. It has no telemetry. It sends no data to Redmond. It is clean.

The Experience

Using VSCodium feels almost exactly like using the official version. The menus are the same. The shortcuts are the same. The only difference is the absence of the proprietary marketplace.

This is where the trouble starts. Microsoft does not allow VSCodium to use their official extension store. So, VSCodium uses a community alternative called Open VSX. Most extensions are there, but not all of them.

I spent twenty minutes trying to find a specific debugger that only exists on the official store. I failed. I felt frustrated. This is the first crack in the “fork” lifestyle. You gain privacy, but you lose convenience.

The AI Pioneer: Cursor

Next, I clicked on a sleek, grey-and-black icon. This is Cursor.

If you have been on Twitter or LinkedIn recently, you have seen Cursor. It is the fork that started the current madness. The creators of Cursor looked at VS Code and said, “What if the editor could write the code for you?”

I installed Cursor because everyone told me it was magic. They were right.

The Experience

Cursor looks like VS Code, but it behaves like a senior engineer sitting next to you. You can press Cmd+K and a text box appears. You type, “Refactor this code to use async/await,” and it just happens. You can chat with your entire codebase. You can ask, “Where is the authentication logic?” and it will find the files for you.

The madness here is that Cursor is so good, it makes the original VS Code feel “dumb.” When I go back to the standard editor, I wait for it to autocomplete my sentences, but it does nothing. I feel spoiled.

However, the fatigue sets in when you look at the price. It has a subscription model. Also, it is yet another piece of software to update. My settings from the original VS Code mostly transferred over, but not perfectly. My theme looks slightly different. My keybindings are 95% correct, which is worse than 0% correct because it tricks my muscle memory.

The Challenger: Windsurf

Just as I was getting comfortable with Cursor, a new contender appeared. I saw a YouTube video about “Windsurf.”

Windsurf is made by a company called Codeium. They were already famous for making an AI extension. But they decided an extension was not enough. They needed a fork.

I downloaded Windsurf. That is three editors now.

The Experience

Windsurf introduces a concept called “Flows” and “Cascade.” It claims to have a deeper understanding of the context than Cursor.

When I opened it, the interface was startlingly beautiful. It feels modern. It feels smooth. The AI integration, called Cascade, lives on the right side. It watches what I do. If I make a mistake in my terminal, Cascade notices and offers to fix it.

This is a step up from Cursor. Cursor waits for me to ask a question. Windsurf feels like it is watching over my shoulder, waiting to jump in.

But now I have a problem. I have a project open in Cursor. I have the same project open in Windsurf. I make a change in one, and I forget to save it before switching to the other. I am getting confused. Which editor has the “good” AI context? I can’t remember. The cognitive load is increasing.

The New Giant: Trae

I thought I was done. I really did. But then I read the news headlines. ByteDance (the owners of TikTok) released a new IDE called Trae.

“Another one?” I asked the empty room. “Do I really need another one?”

The answer, apparently, is yes. I clicked download.

The Experience

Trae is aggressive. It wants to be your entire workflow. It has a “Builder Mode” that is very impressive. You can tell it to build a simple web app, and it will generate the files, write the code, and run the server for you.

The biggest selling point of Trae right now is that it offers free access to powerful models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o. This is a direct attack on Cursor, which charges for high-usage access to these models.

Trae feels fast. It is sleek. But it also feels like a walled garden. It is owned by a massive social media conglomerate. Do I want TikTok’s parent company managing my code editor? That is a question for the privacy-minded folks who are still using VSCodium.

Now I have four editors. My taskbar looks like a rainbow.

The Data Science Pivot: Positron

I am not primarily a data scientist, but I dabble in Python and R. For years, people in that world used RStudio. RStudio was the king of data science.

But the company behind RStudio (now called Posit) saw the writing on the wall. They realized that VS Code was eating the world. So, they did something drastic. They stopped building their own custom IDE and—you guessed it—they forked VS Code.

They call it Positron.

I installed it to see what the fuss was about.

The Experience

Positron is fascinating. It looks like VS Code, but they have rearranged the furniture. There is a dedicated “Variables” pane that is always visible, just like in RStudio. There is a Data Explorer that lets you view CSV files and dataframes beautifully.

If you do data science, the standard VS Code is okay, but you have to install ten different extensions to get it right. Positron comes with everything pre-installed and pre-configured. It is a “batteries included” version of VS Code for data people.

It is brilliant. It is also the fifth editor I have installed today.

The Hidden Cost of the Fork Madness

So, I have VSCodium, Cursor, Windsurf, Trae, and Positron. Plus the original VS Code.

This is madness.

There are serious downsides to this fragmentation that nobody talks about in the marketing videos.

1. Disk Space and RAM

VS Code is built on Electron. Electron is essentially a web browser that runs on your desktop. It is heavy. It uses a lot of RAM. It uses a lot of disk space.

Having five different Electron apps installed is like having five different web browsers running at the same time, each with fifty tabs open. My laptop fan is spinning so fast it sounds like a helicopter. My battery life has dropped by two hours.

2. The Extension Hell

This is the biggest pain point. Each fork handles extensions differently.

Cursor imports your VS Code extensions, but sometimes they break.

VSCodium cannot see the proprietary ones.

Trae tries to be compatible, but some specific debugging tools fail.

I found myself in a situation where I had my favorite color theme in Cursor, but my favorite linter only worked correctly in the original VS Code, and my data visualization tools were only good in Positron.

I started fragmenting my work. “I will write the code in Cursor, but I will debug it in VS Code, and I will analyze the data in Positron.”

This is not efficient. This is chaos.

3. The Muscle Memory Confusion

Every editor has slightly different default keybindings.

In Cursor, Tab is the magic button to accept an AI suggestion.

In standard VS Code, Tab just creates a tab character.

In Windsurf, the AI shortcuts are slightly different again.

I spent the afternoon pressing Tab in the standard VS Code and waiting for magic to happen. Nothing happened. I just added whitespace to my code. I felt foolish. My brain is trying to learn three different dialects of the same language.

4. The Syncing Nightmare

VS Code has a wonderful feature called “Settings Sync.” It saves your settings to your GitHub account. If you move to a new computer, your settings follow you.

The forks do not always play nice with this. Cursor has its own sync. VSCodium cannot use the Microsoft sync service.

I spent an hour trying to manually copy my settings.json file from one editor to another. I was copying text from a text editor into another text editor, just so the second text editor would look like the first text editor. It felt like a waste of a human life.

The Paradox of Choice

There is a famous book by Barry Schwartz called The Paradox of Choice. The idea is simple: when you have too many options, you become less happy, not more happy. You spend all your time worrying if you made the right choice.

This is where the developer community is right now.

We are spending more time choosing our tools than using them. We are spending more time configuring our AI assistants than actually writing the code.

I found myself staring at my dock, hovering my mouse between the Windsurf icon and the Cursor icon. “Which one should I use for this React component?” I wondered.

That is the wrong question. The question should be, “How do I build this React component?”

The tool has become the distraction.

Will One Win?

The big question is: how does this end?

It is unlikely that all of these forks will survive. Maintaining a fork of a complex project like VS Code is expensive. You need a large team of engineers just to keep up with the updates from Microsoft. If you fall behind, your editor becomes insecure and buggy.

Microsoft is also watching. They are not sleeping. They have GitHub Copilot. They are slowly adding all the features that Cursor and Windsurf have into the main product.

Eventually, the standard VS Code might become good enough that the forks become unnecessary. Or, perhaps one of the forks (likely Cursor) will become so popular that it becomes the new standard, and the original VS Code becomes the “boring” option for enterprise companies.

But for now, we are in the Wild West.

Conclusion: How to Survive the Madness

After my day of installing five editors, my computer was a mess. My fans were loud. My brain was tired.

Here is my advice to you.

Do not do what I did. Do not install five forks.

1. Identify your need.

  • Are you a data scientist? Try Positron. It allows you to ditch RStudio while keeping the workflow you love.
  • Are you a privacy absolutist? Use VSCodium. It is the moral choice.
  • Do you want the absolute best AI experience right now and are willing to pay? Use Cursor. It is currently the leader of the pack.
  • Do you want to try the new wave of “agentic” flows? Try Windsurf.
  • Are you on a budget and want free access to top-tier models? Try Trae (while it is still free).

2. Pick one and delete the rest.

Once you have made your choice, commit to it. Uninstall the others. Do not let them linger on your hard drive. If you keep them, you will constantly second-guess yourself.

3. Remember what matters.

The best code editor is not the one with the smartest AI or the coolest icon. The best code editor is the one you know how to use.

If you are faster in the standard VS Code because you know every shortcut by heart, then stay there. An AI that writes code for you is useless if you spend ten minutes fighting the user interface.

I ended my day by uninstalling three of the forks. I kept one AI editor for my side projects, and I kept the standard VS Code for my actual job.

The madness is fun to explore, but sanity is better for shipping code.