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Spacemacs VS GitHub Codespaces

Compare Spacemacs VS GitHub Codespaces and see what are their differences

Spacemacs logo Spacemacs

Community-driven Emacs distribution that meshes Emacs and Vim features.

GitHub Codespaces logo GitHub Codespaces

GItHub Codespaces is a hosted remote coding environment by GitHub based on Visual Studio Codespaces integrated directly for GitHub.
  • Spacemacs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-04-26
  • GitHub Codespaces Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-01

Spacemacs features and specs

  • Customizability
    Spacemacs is highly customizable, leveraging the power of Emacs and Vim. Users can tailor their development environment to exactly fit their workflow.
  • Community-driven
    Spacemacs benefits from a strong, active community. Users have access to a wealth of shared configurations, extensions, and advice.
  • Hybrid Model
    Combines the best features of Emacs and Vim, allowing users to switch easily between editing styles and take advantage of both systems’ strengths.
  • Ease of Setup
    Spacemacs provides an easy-to-use distribution of Emacs, simplifying the initial setup process and making it more accessible for newcomers.
  • Rich Documentation
    Spacemacs comes with extensive documentation, both official and user-generated, which makes it easier to learn and troubleshoot issues.

Possible disadvantages of Spacemacs

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Despite simplifying Emacs, Spacemacs can still be daunting for beginners, requiring time and effort to master.
  • Performance
    Spacemacs can be slow to start up and may lag with heavy configurations or large files, impacting overall performance.
  • Complexity
    The combination of Emacs and Vim features can add layers of complexity, potentially overwhelming users who may prefer a more straightforward tool.
  • Dependency on Emacs
    Users are still reliant on Emacs and its ecosystem, which might be a downside for those looking to avoid the intricacies of Emacs altogether.
  • Resource Intensive
    Compared to other editors, Spacemacs can be more resource-intensive, consuming more memory and CPU power.

GitHub Codespaces features and specs

  • Instant Setup
    GitHub Codespaces allows for quick setup of development environments, enabling developers to start coding within minutes.
  • Consistency
    By using Codespaces, all team members can work in consistent development environments, avoiding the 'works on my machine' problem.
  • Scalable
    Codespaces can easily scale up or down resources based on the needs of the project, offering flexibility in resource allocation.
  • Integrated with GitHub
    Seamless integration with GitHub means that Codespaces takes advantage of all GitHub features like pull requests, issues, and workflows directly within the development environment.
  • Customizable Environments
    Developers can define the configuration of their development environments using devcontainer.json files, making it easy to set up tailored workspaces.
  • Remote Development
    Codespaces allows developers to work from virtually anywhere without needing to rely on the power of their local machines.

Possible disadvantages of GitHub Codespaces

  • Cost
    Using Codespaces incurs a cost based on compute and storage resources, which can add up, especially for larger teams or more intensive projects.
  • Internet Reliance
    Codespaces are cloud-based, so a stable internet connection is required. Any disruption in connectivity can hinder development progress.
  • Customization Limitations
    While customizable, Codespaces may not support all specific or advanced development setups or niche tools as effectively as local environments.
  • Performance Variability
    Performance might vary depending on the selected instance type and current load on GitHub's infrastructure.
  • Dependency on GitHub Ecosystem
    Codespaces are tightly integrated with GitHub, which could be a downside for teams that use other platforms or who prefer a more platform-independent solution.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers unfamiliar with cloud-based environments may face a learning curve when first transitioning to Codespaces.

Spacemacs videos

Spacemacs For Noobs

More videos:

  • Review - Can VSCode be a reasonable Spacemacs alternative? (VSpaceCode)
  • Review - EmacsCast 4 - Spacemacs vs Doom vs Emacs

GitHub Codespaces videos

Brief introduction of GitHub Codespaces

More videos:

  • Review - GitHub Codespaces First Look - 5 things to look for

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Spacemacs and GitHub Codespaces)
Text Editors
25 25%
75% 75
IDE
34 34%
66% 66
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Programming
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Spacemacs and GitHub Codespaces. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Spacemacs and GitHub Codespaces

Spacemacs Reviews

Top 8 Sublime Text Alternatives You Can Use in 2019
Spacemacs uses the space bar as a default leader key, which is where the program gets its name from. The syntax highlighting feature on Spacemacs is enabled by default for all major programming languages, and it is configurable manually through configuration files as well as via internal commands. For all its positives, the program can be quite a bit glitchy at times. From...
Source: beebom.com

GitHub Codespaces Reviews

12 Best Online IDE and Code Editors to Develop Web Applications
Beginners who want to try their luck can use GitHub Codespaces for free with limited benefits, but you will have enough features to carry on. If you are a team or an enterprise, you can start using GitHub Codespaces at $40/user/year.
Source: geekflare.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GitHub Codespaces seems to be a lot more popular than Spacemacs. While we know about 148 links to GitHub Codespaces, we've tracked only 6 mentions of Spacemacs. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Spacemacs mentions (6)

  • Our teacher only allows us to use VIM
    Show them spacemacs.org, github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs or at least spacevim.org. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Creating Haskell notebooks with org-mode
    Your Emacs will need some packages: org, org-babel and haskell-mode. If you use spacemacs it is enough to add these layers in your .spacemacs:. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Vim Users! Share your Clever Configs and Plugin Setups (or learn something new)🔥
    Try https://spacemacs.org magit + org-mode are the big selling points. Magit especially for programming. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Emacs' org-mode gets citation support
    Aside from editing on mobile devices, I think Emacs isn't as hard to pick up as it once was. It's certainly not easy but tools like Spacemacs or Doom make it much simpler to get started and really limit the need to create and edit a complicated little library of your Elisp code. http://spacemacs.org https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs. - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago
  • A guide to create tmux like Custom Layouts in Spacemacs
    Coming from a vim world with tmux, I had really missed the multiple split window layout in Spacemacs. But after knowing how to define custom layouts this seemed to be an easy exercise for me. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
View more

GitHub Codespaces mentions (148)

  • VSCode's SSH Agent Is Bananas
    https://github.com/features/codespaces All you need is a well-defined .devcontainer file. Debugging, extensions, collaborative coding, dependant services, OS libraries, as much RAM as you need (as opposed to what you have), specific NodeJS Versions — all with a single click. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • GitHub Workflows: The First Line of Defense
    For this week, our task was to automate everything: GitHub workflows for testing, linting, building, and error checking. Additionally, I set up a dev container that contributors can use in GitHub Codespaces for a fast, hassle-free setup. Finally, we were assigned to write tests for a classmate's project! - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Dear AWS, how do I build & develop purely on AWS right now?
    As an alternative for Cloud9, you can use vscode.dev, which runs VS Code in the browser or other alternatives that are more integrated and personalized like gitpod.io or Github Codespaces. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Ask HN: Any Recommendations Around Programming on an iPad?
    Check out GitHub Codespaces https://github.com/features/codespaces I have used it for learning C, Rust and Go. It even has a VSCode editor in the browser. It’s pretty easy to setup. Create a repo, add a hello_world.c, push the code, then in the UI press the green code option and select Create code space on main and then use the gcc from the terminal to compile... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Local development with Subdomains, Mobile Testing, and OAuth
    I updated the settings in my router to keep my IP assigned to my computer to avoid needing to update the DNS file. ### Remote Development One option I didn't try is doing all of your development remotely in something like Github Workspaces. From what it looks like, I think this would provide all the functionality needed except, you'd be dependent on internet and be locked into their pricing. I've worked in this... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Spacemacs and GitHub Codespaces, you can also consider the following products

Vim - Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing

CloudShell - Cloud Shell is a free admin machine with browser-based command-line access for managing your infrastructure and applications on Google Cloud Platform.

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

replit - Code, create, andlearn together. Use our free, collaborative, in-browser IDE to code in 50+ languages — without spending a second on setup.

GNU Emacs - GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more.

StackBlitz - Online VS Code Editor for Angular and React