Goodbye JetBrains
It’s been a pleasure for two decades. 15 years out of my own pocket, and paid by my employer before that. But this time, I will not renew my JetBrains Toolbox subscription.
What I dislike lately:
- Many (tiny) bugs or glitches and overall diminishing perceived quality.
- Integration with Claude Code lacking or lagging (dealbreaker).
- Heavyweight (as ever, but there are so many lightweight alternatives now).
With recent versions of Claude Code, two killer features have lost their edge:
- Refactoring.
- Project setup.
The refactoring is still better than in VS Code, but thanks to AI, it has become somewhat irrelevant. For instance, to group a bunch of Python functions spread across several files and turn them into class methods, ask your LLM. Change a method signature: ditto, and the model will understand what to do at the call sites, and update your unit tests.
Setting up a project in VS Code is still tedious, but I rarely do that. I save myself the trouble by asking AI.
What I’ll miss:
- Code completion. Sure, all editors have that. JetBrains is just better at predicting the most relevant item and putting it at the top of the list.
- Keyboard shortcuts and overall coherence across JetBrains products.
My new tools:
- Terminal (kitty with tmux, but I probably don’t need tmux).
- Helix.
- VS Code.
- Probably TablePlus to replace DataGrip.
With their continuity discount, I must say it’s been a good bargain. And a real pleasure from the beginning. The best tools I have used, hands down. So long, and thanks for all the fish.