No IDE Wars, Just Love
We have heard, and read and written so much about IDE wars, but we never got to consent. And I thought to myself, maybe we are thinking in wrong terms? Maybe it’s not about wars? Since all wars are human-made, they all have their background and reasons. Don’t we know multiple historical facts when people started wars because of … love? And doesn’t this entire buzz look like a war based on a deep love? Let’s try to look at our life with IDEs from this perspective.
A developer and an IDE are like a loving couple where developer loves the IDE, and the IDE returns its good for the feeling.
A proverb says that all lucky couples are lucky in the same manner, while all unlucky ones are unlucky differently.
When asking why a developer uses one or another IDE, the answer, in most cases, is simple – he or she is lucky with it. And while people are lucky, you will never succeed in converting them to another IDE. It’s like arguing about whose girl- or boyfriend is better. They are already engaged. Why bother?
At this point, the question “To war, or not to war” could be closed; but only for those who already love and are lucky…
What about those who are not? They may even never complain, because they don’t know they are unlucky. It’s like trying to convince an old bachelor, that being married (or in our terms “engaged with an IDE”) is better than being single. Words - the main weapons in the IDE wars - will not work. Only a disturbingly happy face of a married brother, or neighbor, or colleague, can potentially lead to mind-change.
So, we have only one group left – those who are unlucky and admit this sad fact. But – there’s always some ‘but’ in between - if they complain, complains will almost never be around the same problems, as the proverb says that unluckiness is always different.
And here’s the starting point for what we used to call wars - wars for obtaining admirers, or in other words wars for love. Still love... It’s all about love…
Did anyone succeed in being loved by struggling? Maybe… Not many… How to make people love you? Either they love you just because you are as you are, or they love you because you become as they want you to be. No other way. Same with IDEs – some developers love an IDE just “because”, others don’t, and won’t until it becomes as they’d love it to be.
So, where’s the way out, for an IDE implicated in a war? Keep being what you are; keep getting better, for new love to be born in someone’s heart; finally become a “bachelor’s wife” :-)
That’s it! No wars, just love!