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VS Code VS Fossil

Compare VS Code VS Fossil and see what are their differences

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VS Code logo VS Code

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

Fossil logo Fossil

Simple, high-reliability, distributed software configuration management
  • VS Code Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-09
  • Fossil Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23

VS Code features and specs

  • Cross-platform
    VS Code works on Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing a consistent development experience across different operating systems.
  • Extensibility
    A vast library of extensions allows users to add functionalities like debuggers, linters, and themes, making it highly customizable.
  • Integrated Git
    Built-in Git integration makes it easy to manage version control tasks directly within the editor.
  • Performance
    Lightweight compared to full-fledged IDEs, ensuring good performance even on systems with limited resources.
  • IntelliSense
    Advanced code completion and refactoring tools help improve coding efficiency and reduce errors.
  • Community Support
    A strong and active community provides extensive support, tutorials, and third-party extensions.
  • Debugging
    Robust debugging tools for various languages and frameworks are available out of the box.
  • Free and Open-Source
    VS Code is completely free to use and open-source, which is beneficial for both individual developers and organizations.

Possible disadvantages of VS Code

  • Limited IDE Features
    While extensible, it may lack some advanced features found in dedicated IDEs out of the box.
  • Extension Management
    Managing and configuring a large number of extensions can become cumbersome and sometimes lead to performance issues.
  • Learning Curve
    Although user-friendly, it has a steeper learning curve for beginners due to its numerous features and customization options.
  • Memory Usage
    Despite being lightweight, it can consume a significant amount of memory when multiple extensions are installed.
  • Update Frequency
    Frequent updates may sometimes introduce bugs or require users to adapt to new changes quickly.
  • Internet Dependency
    Some features and extensions may require an internet connection to function optimally.
  • Telemetry
    By default, VS Code collects usage data, which might be a concern for users sensitive about data privacy. However, this can be disabled.

Fossil features and specs

  • Version Control Integration
    Fossil is a distributed version control system that integrates bug tracking, a wiki, and a blog, providing a comprehensive development environment in one tool.
  • Self-Contained
    Fossil is a single executable that contains everything needed, making it easy to install and manage with low dependency overhead.
  • Simple UI
    Fossil includes a built-in, easy-to-use web interface that allows users to browse repositories, manage tickets, and handle wiki content without needing separate tools.
  • SQLite Backend
    Fossil uses an SQLite database to store all its data, making it reliable, efficient, and easy to backup and transfer.
  • Integrated Bug Tracking
    The integrated bug tracking system allows developers to manage issues and bugs directly within the same environment, streamlining the workflow.
  • Cross-Platform
    Fossil is designed to work on multiple operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows, ensuring a consistent experience across different environments.
  • Strong Documentation
    Fossil comes with extensive documentation and a supportive community, which helps users quickly get up to speed and solve issues.

Possible disadvantages of Fossil

  • Niche User Base
    Fossil has a relatively small user base compared to more popular version control systems like Git, which may result in fewer resources and community support.
  • Limited Third-Party Integration
    Due to its smaller market share, Fossil has fewer integrations and third-party tools available compared to its competitors, limiting extensibility.
  • Learning Curve
    Users new to Fossil might find its all-in-one approach with integrated tools to be complex initially, especially if they are accustomed to using separate systems for version control, bug tracking, and wikis.
  • Performance
    While suitable for many projects, Fossil might not perform as well as other VCS systems when handling very large repositories or extremely high volumes of transactions.
  • UI Customization
    The built-in web interface, while simple and functional, may lack the level of customization and modern design aesthetics that some users expect.

VS Code videos

My New Favorite Text Editor - Visual Studio Code

More videos:

  • Review - 7 reasons why I switched to Visual Studio Code from Sublime Text

Fossil videos

Why Is EVERYONE Giving This Watch 5 Stars?! - A Brutally Honest Fossil Watch Review

More videos:

  • Review - What Happened To Fossil Watches?
  • Tutorial - Fossil watch real vs. fake review. How to tell counterfeit Fossil wrist watch

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to VS Code and Fossil)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Code Collaboration
0 0%
100% 100
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Git
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using VS Code and Fossil. 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 VS Code and Fossil

VS Code Reviews

  1. dksinden
    · Working at SpeechKit ·

Boost Your Productivity with These Top Text Editors and IDEs
Visual Studio Code, commonly known as VS Code, is a powerful and extensible code editor developed by Microsoft. With its rich ecosystem of extensions and features like IntelliSense, debugging, and Git integration, VS Code enhances your coding productivity.
Source: convesio.com
13 Best Text Editors to Speed up Your Workflow
Finally, the Visual Studio Code website has numerous tabs for you to learn about the software. The documentation page walks you through steps like the setup and working with different languages. You’re also able to check out some tips and tricks and learn all of the Visual Studio Code keyboard shortcuts. Along with a blog, updates page, extensions library and API...
Source: kinsta.com
Jupyter Notebook & 10 Alternatives: Data Notebook Review [2023]
Previously, VS Code was more suited to developers or engineers due to its lack of data analysis capabilities, but since 2020, the VS Code team has collaborated with the Jupyter team to create an integrated notebook within VS Code. The end result is a fantastic IDE workbook for data analysis.
Source: lakefs.io
The Best IDEs for Java Development: A Comparative Analysis
Overview: Although not a traditional IDE, VS Code has gained popularity as a lightweight code editor.
Source: dev.to
20 Best Diff Tools to Compare File Contents on Linux
Visual studio code is a code editor made by Microsoft. It supports several development operations like debugging, task running, and version control. It works on Linux, macOS and Windows operating systems.
Source: linuxopsys.com

Fossil Reviews

We have no reviews of Fossil yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VS Code seems to be a lot more popular than Fossil. While we know about 1143 links to VS Code, we've tracked only 26 mentions of Fossil. 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.

VS Code mentions (1143)

  • Build Python Docker Development Environment on Win11 from Scratch
    Download VSCode through the following URL Https://code.visualstudio.com/. - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • How to Handle File Uploads with Node.js and Express - Multer Edition
    A text editor or lightweight IDE such as Visual Studio Code. - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • What's Happening in Developer Tools? (OpenAI Just Bought Windsurf for $3B)
    Microsoft's Visual Studio Code is a free code editor that relies on community plugins for support across various languages and frameworks. It also has an AI offering, Copilot, that provides code completion and it just added its own agent. VSCode supports multiple LLMs, but initially, there seemed to be a preference for ChatGPT, in part given its early lead and no doubt influenced by the fact Microsoft was an early... - Source: dev.to / 8 days ago
  • Your first MCP Server (quick)
    Explore different MCP Clients too! You can continue using ollmcp as we did earlier, or try other clients like Claude Desktop, Visual Studio Code, and more to see how different environments interact with your server. - Source: dev.to / 8 days ago
  • An Introduction to TypeScript for JavaScript Developers
    Better Tooling – Enhanced autocompletion, refactoring, and navigation in IDEs like VS Code. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
View more

Fossil mentions (26)

  • Git Bug: Distributed, Offline-First Bug Tracker Embedded in Git, with Bridges
    Fossil[0] has bug tracking as a standard feature, and through the HTTP role-based authentication, you are able to set up users with different privileges; for instance, being able to read and write the bug tracker without the ability to push new code. [0]: https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki. - Source: Hacker News / 2 days ago
  • I struggled with Git, so I'm making a game to spare others the pain
    Sort of repeating a nested comment, but - I've been using fossil ( https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki ) for years and absolutely love it. Single executable you just download and put in your path. Sane, well-documented interface (CLI, API and web). Full repo in a single SQLite file. Highly intelligent and efficient diff-based storage and compression (including network transfers). Rock-solid code.... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • jj: A Git-compatible VCS that is both simple and powerful
    Neither do I. This discussion isn't about what someone else runs or doesn't run on their computers. By all means, run `jj`. Or use `fossil`[1], which I maintain is technically superior to both `git` and `jj` (if you disagree, show me another VCS that also gives me a ticketing system, wiki, documentation system, forum and webui, all from a single executeable that allows me to set everything up with a few command... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Htmx Is Composable?
    Feedback to author: The diagram and explanation took a beat longer than normal to scan, since this buries a bit that it's not about the beautiful source control system called fossil shipped as a composition of modules: https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki Great diagrams, so of course that's the first thing a reader will skim. People biuld things based on git all the time, the diagram looks like... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Cloudflare API Down
    There are (all too rare) tools that back those objects with git as well. And there's always fossil ... https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki But it's not git. :-(. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing VS Code and Fossil, you can also consider the following products

Sublime Text - Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose - any kind of text file. You'll love the slick user interface and extraordinary features. Fully customizable with macros, and syntax highlighting for most major languages.

Mercurial SCM - Mercurial is a free, distributed source control management tool.

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

GitLab - Create, review and deploy code together with GitLab open source git repo management software | GitLab

Notepad++ - A free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment.

Git - Git is a free and open source version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. It is easy to learn and lightweight with lighting fast performance that outclasses competitors.