They have much superior product compared to VSCode in terms of pretty much everything, except AI.
Not sure why it’s so hard for them to catch up with Cursor. They have everything they need but somehow they focus on just something that they don’t have much expertise, building models instead of better integration. It’s a shame seeing such good product going downhill considering AI is becoming fundamental for dev productivity.
> They have much superior product compared to VSCode in terms of pretty much everything, except AI
Disagree, I keep trying Jetbrains once in a while and keep walking away disappointed (used to be a hardcore user). I use VS Code bc it is seamlessly polyglot. Jetbrains wants me to launch a whole separate IDE for different use cases, which is just horrible UX for me. Why would I pay hundreds for a worse UX?
you can install nearly all of their supported language plugins in your editor fyi. you just lose some of the language specific integrations if you use the python plugin via intellij for example.
They’re in a difficult position because half their users want more AI but the other half complain loudly when it’s forced on them. Cursor is beating them because they can deeply embed AI everywhere without worrying about this.
That’s what they’re evidently trying to do, but it means they’re moving too slow and the AI integration feels like a bolted on afterthought (hence the reaction to failed features like this).
I am a lifetime user of PyCharm but the reality is that Cursor is just so much more productive now. “Junie” is a decent attempt but nowhere close to Cursor yet.
Yes, but it will be very, very slow (think minutes for a not particularly large codebase), and probably contain mistakes. It's not at all comparable to refactoring tools like Jetbrains' rename tool.
I wouldn’t even want the LLM for a simple rename. Volar and TSLS seem to handle renames without issue, even across files and file types (eg Vue and Typescript)
Yeah, I’ve spent some time building IntelliJ plugins, and honestly, the authoring experience has some real limitations. It’s not the easiest platform to work with, especially when it comes to writing automated tests. That might be part of the reason why their or any third-party AI plugins don’t feel as smooth as the ones on VS Code.
I actually have hopes that this will work out for them in the long run. Their bet seems to be at this point including the AI stuff in with the subscription: staving off the existential threat to their business without charging more, while still not having to spend insane amounts paying for someone else's model.
At least with code completion it's pretty obvious at this point that no one needs the overpowered top-line models, and the trajectory on local LLMs is such that I don't think it's unreasonable for them to hope to avoid the big players entirely.
They don't need to beat Claude for it to work, they just need to keep their customers satisfied.
I prefer Java in VS Code, but unfortunately there's no solid option for Kotlin outside of IntelliJ.
One of my two major gripes about Kotlin -- that, and the lack of a standardized style guide and formatting tool so that there's no bikeshedding or difference between repos.
Not sure why it’s so hard for them to catch up with Cursor. They have everything they need but somehow they focus on just something that they don’t have much expertise, building models instead of better integration. It’s a shame seeing such good product going downhill considering AI is becoming fundamental for dev productivity.