Eclipse Foundation Releases Open-Source Theia IDE - Compatible with VS Code Extensions

'After approximately seven years in development, the Eclipse Foundation's Theia IDE project is now generally available,' writes ADT magazine, 'emerging from beta to challenge Microsoft's similar Visual Studio Code (VS Code) editor.'

The Eclipse Theia IDE is part of the Eclipse Cloud DevTools ecosystem. The Eclipse Foundation calls it 'a true open-source alternative to VS Code,' which was built on open source but includes proprietary elements, such as default telemetry, which collects usage data...

Theia was built on the same Monaco editor that powers VS Code, and it supports the same Language Server Protocol (LSP) and Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP) that provide IntelliSense code completions, error checking and other features. The Theia IDE also supports the same extensions as VS Code (via the Open VSX Registry instead of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code Marketplace), which are typically written in TypeScript and JavaScript. There are many, many more extensions available for VS Code in Microsoft's marketplace, while 'Extensions for VS Code Compatible Editors' in the Open VSX Registry number 3,784 at the time of this writing...

The Eclipse Foundation emphasized another difference between its Theia IDE and VS Code: the surrounding ecosystem/community. 'At the core of Theia IDE is its vibrant open source community hosted by the Eclipse Foundation,' the organization said in a news release. 'This ensures freedom for commercial use without proprietary constraints and fosters innovation and reliability through contributions from companies such as Ericsson, EclipseSource, STMicroelectronics, TypeFox, and more. The community-driven model encourages participation and adaptation according to user needs and feedback.'

Indeed, the list of contributors to and adopters of the platform is extensive, also featuring Broadcom, Arm, IBM, Red Hat, SAP, Samsung, Google, Gitpod, Huawei and many others.

The It's FOSS blog has some screenshots and a detailed rundown.

ADT magazine stresses that there's also an entirely distinct (but related) project called the Eclipse Theia Platform (not IDE) which differs from VS Code by allowing developers 'to create desktop and cloud IDEs using a single, open-source technology stack' [that can be used in open-source initiatives]. The Eclipse Theia platform 'allows developers to customize every aspect of the IDE without forking or patching the code... fully tailored for the needs of internal company projects or for commercial resale as a branded product.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.