Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

VS Code VS Steam Link

Compare VS Code VS Steam Link 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

Steam Link logo Steam Link

Play your Steam games on any TV in the house
  • VS Code Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-09
  • Steam Link Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-17

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.

Steam Link features and specs

  • Convenience
    Steam Link allows you to stream games from your PC to other devices, enabling gaming anywhere in your house as long as you have a good network connection.
  • Compatibility
    Works with many different devices, including TVs, tablets, and smartphones, expanding your options for where and how you play.
  • Cost-Effective
    Since it's a free app, you can gain an additional way to play your games without needing to purchase more hardware.
  • Quality Gaming Experience
    Supports high-quality streaming, including high frame rates and low latency, provided you have an adequate network setup.
  • Ease of Use
    The setup is straightforward, mostly involving the app and some basic networking setup, making it accessible to most users.

Possible disadvantages of Steam Link

  • Network Dependency
    The quality of the experience depends heavily on your home networkโ€™s speed and stability, potentially requiring upgrades to achieve optimal performance.
  • Limited to Home Network
    Works best over your local home network, meaning you're not truly mobile and are limited to your home unless you configure remote play over the internet.
  • Hardware Requirements
    You still need a host PC that can run the games, so while the app itself is free, it's not a substitute for owning capable gaming hardware.
  • Input Lag
    Although minimized, some users might still experience noticeable input lag depending on their network configuration and hardware.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Some games or setups may have compatibility issues with Steam Link's streaming capabilities, requiring adjustments or troubleshooting.

Analysis of VS Code

Overall verdict

  • Yes, VS Code is generally considered a good choice for developers due to its flexibility, efficiency, and strong community support. It is lightweight, fast, and user-friendly, catering to both novice and experienced developers.

Why this product is good

  • VS Code, developed by Microsoft, is a widely popular and versatile code editor. It offers a robust extension ecosystem, which allows developers to customize their workflow and coding environment extensively. Additionally, VS Code supports numerous programming languages right out of the box and provides features like IntelliSense, debugging, Git integration, and a built-in terminal, making it a powerful tool for developers.

Recommended for

  • Web developers looking for a comprehensive yet lightweight coding environment.
  • Software developers who need an editor with extensive language support and customization options.
  • Beginner programmers who would benefit from a feature-rich editor that can grow with their skills.
  • Developers interested in an open-source tool with continuous updates and community-driven enhancements.

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

Steam Link videos

Steam Link Review - A surprisingly interesting device?

More videos:

  • Review - Should You Buy The Steam Link?
  • Review - Steam Link Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to VS Code and Steam Link)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Games
0 0%
100% 100
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Game Streaming
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using VS Code and Steam Link. 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 Steam Link

VS Code Reviews

  1. dksinden
    ยท Working at SpeechKit ยท

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. Youโ€™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

Steam Link Reviews

Top Remote Desktop Software for Gaming
Steam Link, a Valve 2019 production, is another RDP gaming solution designed explicitly for streaming games from a Windows computer to any device. All you need to do is install the app on both your host and client devices.
Source: cloudzy.com
Moonlight game streaming alternatives
Steam Link is a free game streaming service that could have been the perfect alternative for Moonlight. But a few limiting factors prevent it from doing so. Even with the limiting factors, it is still a pretty good streaming service that can be sued by the players who fulfill the requirements. First and foremost, players can only play the games that are a part of their Steam...
Source: androidgram.com
5 Best Google Stadia Alternatives 2020 | Cloud Gaming Services
Steam Link, released in 2018, is the best alternative to Google Stadia. This game streaming service is all about bringing your Steam library to any of your devices, including TVs, streaming youโ€™re your hosting desktop.
Stream games with these Google Stadia alternatives
Valve has been slowing creeping into the streaming market with its Steam Link Anywhere program, now simply called Steam Link. Itโ€™s largely flown under the radar since launch, probably due to the fact there are only a couple of Steam support pages regarding it, which are light on the details, and little to no discernible effort to spread the good word of what it does. But...
15 game streaming services you can try before Google Stadia arrives
Right now, Valve is being somewhat cryptic about the exact requirements for Steam Link Anywhere. According to the beta page, you need to have โ€œa good upload speed and [that] your Steam Link device has a good network connection.โ€ Once you get past that, all you need is a Windows PC to host the games, plus the Steam beta client running on an Android device or the ill-fated...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VS Code seems to be a lot more popular than Steam Link. While we know about 1214 links to VS Code, we've tracked only 1 mention of Steam Link. 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 (1214)

  • How to Get Your First Tool Online
    The step up from there is an editor with a built-in agent like Cursor, Google Antigravity, Windsurf, or VS Code with a coding extension. These are code editors with an AI agent living inside them, and the difference is the responsible party for getting things from place to place. Instead of the software creator shuttling code between windows, the AI agent edits the project files directly and runs the GitHub and... - Source: dev.to / 8 days ago
  • Agentic Engineering: What Does AI Coding Really Cost?
    For IDE-heavy teams, BYOK (bring your own key) can be interesting, no matter whether you live in WebStorm or VS Code. On the JetBrains side, the JetBrains AI plans and Junie BYOK docs allow it, and most VS Code AI extensions offer the same idea: keep the IDE, connect provider keys, pay the provider. - Source: dev.to / 29 days ago
  • Best Markdown Editors for Developers
    Option 1: Raw editing in IDE. You open the .md file in VS Code or whatever you use. Syntax highlighting shows you the structure. Maybe you toggle a preview pane. This works for quick edits but becomes painful for anything involving tables, diagrams, or complex formatting. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Document Generation for Developers: Security, Compliance, and Build-vs-Buy Decisions for the Template-Plus-Data Pipeline
    You'll need Python 3.8+ and pip for the quickstart, with venv recommended for isolation. Install the requests library for HTTP calls. VS Code with the Python extension works well as an editor, though PyCharm or Sublime Text work equally well. You'll also need a free Foxit developer account. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Notes + Local AI: Simpler Than You Think
    For viewing and navigating, Obsidian handles large markdown libraries well: graph view, tag search, template plugins. VSCode works too if you'd rather stay in your dev environment. Both read the same folder with no conversion needed. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
View more

Steam Link mentions (1)

  • Why I Don't Need a Steam Machine
    There's a Steam app on my Samsung smart TV that I think can do this, with a USB-controller connected to a USB-port on the TV. Haven't tried it though. But I think the best way to do it is to have a cheap PC (or maybe an Android TV device or something?) connected to your TV. You can stream games to it from your gaming PC in the other room: https://store.steampowered.com/remoteplay. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing VS Code and Steam Link, 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.

Parsec - Streams games locally or over the internet

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

Moonlight-Stream.org - Moonlight allows you to stream your collection of games from your GameStream-compatible PC to any...

Node.js - Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

Geforce Now - Underpowered PC can now pack the punch of high-performance GeForce GTX GPUs with GeForce NOW.