The average coder is not worth learning from. Especially since this is targeting the free users by default who are usually students and amateurs. Quality over quantity, JetBrains.
sublime text is $99 for life and you don’t even have to pay it and they have zero ai slop :)
Kate is $0 for life and you don’t even have to pay it and they have zero ai slop :)
hmm looking into this; does kate have package repositories? i love sublime because i can essentially keep my config folder in git (with gitignored exclusions obvs) and keep my install in sync between laptop and desktop
That’s not quite true: Yes, your $99 license is a life-time license, but that license only includes 3 years worth of updates. After that you have to pay $80, if you want another 3 years worth of updates. Of course, the alternative is just putting up with the occasional nag, which is why I still haven’t gotten around to renewing my license
The mail I got makes it quite clear that you have to opt-in if you’re using a paid version:
Dear JetBrains AI user,
We are notifying you that on October 7, 2025, we will roll out an updated version of the JetBrains AI Terms of Service. The main change is in the data sharing clause. Previously we said we wouldn’t use your inputs, data, outputs, or suggestions to train AI models. This is still the case, unless you explicitly allow us to do so.
- For individuals using JetBrains IDEs with commercial licenses, free trials, free community licenses, or EAP builds who do not explicitly consent to the new data collection model – nothing changes.
- For companies that are unwilling or, for legal reasons, unable to opt in to the program – nothing changes either, and their admins remain in full control.
Important to note that the data sharing is OFF by default on all types of JetBrains IDEs licenses except for non-commercial tier until you change the settings explicitly.
For more details about the change, please read this blog post.
Other updates to the JetBrains AI Terms of Service reflect some recent changes to the JetBrains AI service. For example, JetBrains AI can now be used not only with JetBrains products, but also with selected third-party products. The service also includes a new feature that allows you to upload various content for indexing.
For the existing users, the updates will take effect on October 7, 2025. By using JetBrains AI after this date, you agree to the updated JetBrains AI Terms of Service.
Highlight by me. Personally, I don’t see a reason to be outraged. I’ve even used their AI products and they’re OK. They can take over dumb tasks or help me not having to look up documentation.
Am I missing something? Non-paid versions also have to opt-in, no?
My reading just based on the post above is that none paid versions are sharing by default but can be changed to off. All other versions are off by default but can be changed to on.
I don’t understand what the advantage to the developer is supposed to be to let AI scrape their code.
I think I misread a statement about existing users not having their settings changed possibly on an update?
For individuals using JetBrains IDEs with commercial licenses, free trials, free community licenses, or EAP builds who do not explicitly consent to the new data collection model – nothing changes.
AI scraping public code tempts me to dump all my projects into github to poison the training data
Reminds me of this masterpiece
So my projects can be useful too
this made me laugh way too much
It’s love to see what it does with a several thousand line function from my production code.
Several jobs ago we had a SQL stored procedure that took 72 hours to run. Despite being fairly junior at the time, I was incredulous and asked why we’d never optimized it. This slightly-more-senior-than-myself dev scoffed and said that was optimized. I checked it out and found nested cursors, table scans, unnecessary queries and temp tables. I gave up about halfway through and instead printed it out: 13 pages. I stapled it and hung it in my cube as a testament to insanity. I still have that printout.
I should scan it and upload it to poison the well too.
It will refactor it into 5 lines. No need to reimplement the os for scratch to list the files in the current dir
Does this apply to Android studio?
I’m guessing not - Google probably wants the data for itself.
Bump
I liked PyCharm, but its time to refresh my friendship with VIM.
I’ve been building up my Helix setup, and its been fantastic. Got tired of constantly fighting corporate stuff
That’s exactly what I did, switching from Rider. LazyVim helped with getting a usable setup (especially LSPs are pain to setup without it), https://www.vim-hero.com/ taught me the absolute basics of navigation, and then I simply installed IdeaVIM into Rider to force myself to use it, and switched my default editor to LazyVim.
It has already been a few months, and I’m pretty used to it. I still fumble here and there, I still have to stop and think then doing more involved operations, but for the basic editing I wouldn’t go back.
The most important observation I have is that it does not make me more efficient at editting text, the fumbles and mistakes usually offset any gains I have from the many navigation/jump/repeat keys, and reaching for the mouse would be quicker, but -
It’s super fun. Learning new motions is satisfying, you can see progress, and by slowly adding a new motion, then trying to get it to your muscle memory is simply fun. And there’s always something to learn, a new motion to add or make more efficient. It’s basically gamified text editting, and if you like mastering things in the muscle memory sense, it’s awesome. I’d absolutely recommend everyone to make the switch, but not for “being a faster/more efficent at text editting” reason, because if you want that, learning every single IDE keybind will make you faster faster.
Also, it’s surprisingly comfortable not having to reach for a mouse. It has only been a few months, and I’m getting slightly annoyed whenever a program doesn’t have a hotkey for proper navigation and I have to touch my mouse, hah.
Neovim + tmux
Try zed with vim mode.
It’s a non-mutual friendship, though.
Doesn’t anyone else use things like OpenSnitch to audit all outgoing connections? I block all phone homes until something breaks, then investigate.
If you are trapped on Windows for some corporate reason, there is SimpleWall.
We’re all friends here, and friends don’t let friends let apps phone home.
The last time I got a virus on Windows I was only made aware because the built-in firewall warned me a Powershell script was trying to phone home.
Since then I run SimpleWall and I highly recommend everyone else do the same. It’s annoying at the beginning but annoyance turns into peace of mind when you know nothing, not even built-in Windows processes can phone home without you knowing.I did not know about this before, bookmarking the OpenSnitch github so I can try it out on my PC later
TIL. Don’t assume people know about this like that, for many we have never even heard of it, but I’ll be using it constantly now
I’m happy I could help!
Lulu is a good FOSS alternative for Macs. LittleSnitch is good too but proprietary (that’s where OpenSnitch got its name)
Can I subscribe to your newsletter? I want to hear all your other recommendations.
I second OpenSnitch. It’s the most annoying program i run, but the control it gives you over your outbound connections is so worth it from a security and privacy standpoint.
Once you start and run this you get to truly see how many different URLs are loaded when visiting just one website
Can’t, all corporate hardware and their software, too. Not my problem, but also not my intellectual property being stolen to be used in AI, so eh,
NotMyProblemException.I feel like lots of people here use Linux, where you don’t need to be constantly vigilant of your applications working against you…
A lot of proprietary tools like VScode and Jetbrains are needed on Linux if you’re a novice or not yet proficient with tools like EMacs/Vi yet. For example I couldn’t get Vscodium to load an extension I needed so I had to use VScode. But tbh I’m just making excuses cuz I don’t know how to set up a good dev environment :-(
Technically it’s even a ToS violation to install extensions from the VS Code marketplace (or whatever it’s called) if you’re using VS Codium. Many are also available somewhere else like the code forge where they’re developed and are under open source or free software licenses, but quite a few important ones are only available through the one distribution channel you’re not allowed to use, and contain proprietary components that can’t be forked to lift this restriction.
Personally, I find Kate is decent enough for most coding tasks. It does not have an open plugin ecosystem, so I guess, maybe it wouldn’t work for you. But aside from plugins, whenever I see people using VS Code/-ium, I wonder why they keep raving about it.
It just looks like a bogstandard editor with LSP support to me. And Microsoft may have gotten that LSP ball rolling, but it’s supported in lots of editors now…
VScode is certainly a heck of a lot easier to get LSPs working than e.g. vim.
If someone made it actually easy to set up neovim with lsp support that works as well as with vscode, there’d be no reason to give Microsoft any attention at all
This was one of my biggest issues, but I did manage to succesfully switch to nvim few months ago, by installing ideavim into Rider, vscode-vim into vscode (so I can’t easily escape it when I get lazy), but most importantly - setting LazyVim as my default editor, which has been a lifesaver.
It has a pretty good LazyExtras interface for easily installing a ton of plugins, almost for every language. You just open the LazyVim menu, select a language you want, and it installs LSPs, debuggers and whatnot you may need for it. It’s probably using the nvim-lspconfig mentioned in other comments, but it has been pretty seamless.
But any other pre-made nvim config will work, this one is just more approachable than someone’s random plugin list.
Is the LSP support a plugin in Neo-/Vim ?
In Kate, you just install the LSP server, which is typically as simple as
apt install marksmanand then Kate will automatically start it when it encounters an appropriate file.Kate also has a Vi Mode, if that’s what you’re looking for. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The LSP support itself is builtin in Neovim (not in Vim though, AFAIK), but each language server needs to be configured and activated. There is a plugin with all(ish) configurations - https://github.com/neovim/nvim-lspconfig - and activation is done with a
vim.lsp.enable("server-name")command, which you just put in your config and the Neovim will start the LSP when you open a relevant file.Ah, I guess that makes sense. Kate automatically detects available LSP server executables but then prompts you before starting them for the first time, in case you did not install that and it’s malware, or I guess, in case you just placed a script there which happened to be called the same, but would be very bad to run.
Neovim could theoretically do that, too, but then you need a way to block executables, so that it stops prompting you every time, which you’d probably want in a separate config file.
So, it’s definitely a simpler solution and perhaps moreso what one would expect from a TUI editor, for you to just list the ones to run in the config file.
Where might I find a list of languages/LSPs that Kate supports and will load automatically like that?
Here is the default configuration: https://invent.kde.org/utilities/kate/-/blob/master/addons/lspclient/settings.json
If you do need more LSP servers or a different one for a language, you can specify your own custom configuration in the same format.
Anyone new to these tools will be horrified at how aggressively Windows tries to violate your privacy with unnecessary data collection, phone-homes, remote calls, etc.
Linux is galaxies better in that regard. I still don’t want anything making any connections without my explicit knowledge and consent though, and there are lots of packages and applications that try to unnecessarily exfiltrate data without asking. If you aren’t using an active firewall, you are leaking.
This is cool, thanks.
Does running pi hole make this redundant, or are they solving different problems?
They still work together. Pi-hole is an excellent second line of defense, but an active firewall tells you about what is trying to make connections and asks for your consent. Block lists are great, but they aren’t impenetrable. If you want to know exactly what your device and software are doing, you should also be using an active firewall.
Thanks for that suggestion, I had a passing thought a while back I should look into something like this.
Any problems in your experience? I imagine apps will fail if you’re slow to approve the outbound connection and something times out, so I get all of that, looking more for broader issues this might cause? Specifically wondering about the docker containers I run, all the development nonsense.
Both OpenSnitch and SimpleWall block by default. You can also set a timeout so that if you don’t respond in a certain amount of time they automatically create a permanent block rule. You can also check your rules and activity at any point. If a specific application is misbehaving you can always check its rules and change them, or delete them and start over. They’re very efficient, and get less intrusive over time as you respond to prompts and create more rules.
You my friend may just have done a great thing for me
I’m glad this is helping people! Please pass it on.
TIL.
Is this redundant with DNSBL?
Not necessarily. These active firewall tools are much more thorough. They tell you any time an application or service is trying to make a connection to anywhere. Block lists are helpful, but still have gaps. These let *nothing *through unless you explicitly allow it, and ask you clearly and immediately when something that doesn’t already have a rule tries.
This is misleading. For people paying for the IDE nothing changed, data sharing remains an opt-in option. For users of their free licenses data sharing was enabled by default. Still a shitty thing to do especially as it hits a lot of OSS developers but lets criticize that instead of creating memes that are misinformation.
I don’t think it’s misleading, or at leas the point was not to imply that they are forcing the data collection (which they are, for free users, but it is opt-out). The point is that they are actually downright emotionally manipulating in the blogpost. The blogpost in which they announce it, at least in my opinion, is written in exactly the same tone as the picture. They are basically crying that they can’t make a good AI without stealing your private data, pleading you to turn it on.
I’ve seen a few similar posts of products announcing AI data collection, and this one was the most unsettling, hence the meme.
You do add important detail, but I’d make the counterpoint that if the corporation is bullying their least privileged users today, stealing their
lunch moneyprivacy, they’re not going to stop with only them. This is testing the waters for them.Plus - it’s also messed up that they can fundamentally change the nature of the 501©(3) donated version and will likely try to claim a tax benefit as though it’s equivalent to a paid copy.
As the saying goes, if a product is free then that means you are the product
In this case, the product was free to OSS developers not because they were the product, but because they’re influencers likely to end up encouraging their users and/or employers to buy the paid version, so it was the marketing that those people could do that was the product.
This change with the data harvesting makes those developers the product, though.
They’re doing as much of a bad thing as they think they can get away with. I don’t feel a particular duty to carefully acknowledge that in some circumstances they feel obligated to do the right thing instead. If they don’t like the “misleading” aspects of that, they’re free to just do the right thing completely.
This may be controversial, but trying to collect the data of your free users to offset the costs of the infrastructure/resources needed to support the free users is not a bad thing - especially when you give those users an option to opt-out.
You make it sound like their goal is to do bad things. That’s not true. Corporations are not good or evil, they are amoral. They don’t care if what they are doing is good or bad - it just matters if they make money.
they’re free to just do the right thing completely
What exactly would that entail?
For me, the issue isn’t as much that they are forcing the data collection (on some/free people, to be clear).
I have issues with the way they are spending their development money, that I give them for the product. I don’t care about the AI hype slop, that apparently can’t even get good results (which they outright admit in the blogpost), instead of actually making the core features of the editor better. Everyone knows at this point it’s a hype bubble that will never be usable, and they are grasping at straws.
I don’t want to pay 200$ a year only for them to add a dumb chatbot and data collection into my IDE, or make the code completion dumber and random instead of actually being deterministic. So I don’t, canceled my subscription and I’m sticking to the perpetual license while slowly switching to nvim. But I can still make fun of them about it. I have been recommending JetBrains products for most of my life, and they have disappointed me with the direction they are going, so I’ll make sure to un-recommend it.
That’s fair, but that’s just a service quality complaint. It doesn’t sound to me like you are claiming they are doing “a bad thing”, as a moral value judgement.
The right thing is to make it opt-in for everyone, simple as that. The entire controversy goes away immediately if they do. If they really believe it’s a good value proposition for their users, and want to avoid collecting data from people who didn’t actually want to give it, they should have faith that their users will agree and affirmatively check the box.
If free users are really such a drain on them, why have they been offering a free version for so long before it became a conduit to that sweet, sweet data? Because it isn’t a drain, it’s a win-win. They want people using their IDE, even for free, they don’t get money from it but they get market share, broad familiarity with their tool amongst software engineers, a larger user base that can support each other on third party sites and provide free advertising, and more.
The right thing is to make it opt-in for everyone
How is that the right thing? I’m directly challenging this claim.
All I said was that free users cost them money, so it’s reasonable for them to try to recover those costs. I never claimed that free users are a drain on them, so I won’t even respond to the rest of your comment.
Opt out means “we will be doing this, without permission, unless you tell us not to” and opt in means “if you give us permission we will do this.” Codebases can contain important and sensitive information, and sending it off to some server to be shoved into an LLM is something that should be done with care. Getting affirmative consent is the bare minimum.
I disagree about what the bare minimum is. It’s not uninformed. They tell you about it, and tell you you can opt out. I don’t really see how that would be them doing it without permission.
This is what finally pushed me to move all coding I can away from Jetbrains products. I wanted to to that for a while, because I didn’t want to depend on a closed system and wait until it enshitified. Now it happened. Sad to see, but it was inevitable.
I keep seeing EMacs,Vim, and Neovim recommendations, but I’m out here recommending people use Geany. It’s honestly the best code editor I’ve ever used since its 2.0 version was released. I have it setup with a debugger, an lsp, tree browser, a nice theme, etc. and it’s basically perfect. Free, open source, perfectly customizable, what more can I ask for <3
Edit: just want to say for those ppl already using Vim, it does have Vim mode. So, I think most of the hotkeys should work but I’ve only used Vim a couple times in my life, so I can’t vouch for how well Vim mode works.
Vim is my preferred ‘IDE’ for C++, Python, Bash, and general configuration file editing. It’s got some big pluses:
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its text editing is superb once you’ve mastered it, but that’s a small part of its benefits when used as an IDE, and ‘Vim mode’ in other environments kind of undersells what else it can do
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Vim has some great plugins for development. YouCompleteMe is awesome for predictive completion and showing docs, but NerdTree for file management and TagBar for showing structure are amazing as well. They’re all very configurable and they get out of your way.
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Vim lives in your terminal window, so you can do splits and tabs using whichever terminal you like. Kitty is very fast and configurable and keeps out your way. Being able to have multiple tabs of Vim open, a tab for compilation, a tab for debugging, a tab for version control, a tab for man pages, and being able to flip between them without taking your fingers off the keyboard makes for a very fast workflow
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Vim makes it very easy to edit binary files and be precise about whitespace changes, so it’s easy to make a minimal change for raising a PR.
If you assign a hotkey to run a macro in Vim, then that can be made very flexible - saving and formatting all open windows, then invoking CMake to do a build and CTest to run all your unit tests can be put on a function key if you like. Trying to tell Eclipse to “just run CMake to do the build” seems to be an exercise in frustration; so many IDEs are terrible at “just getting out of the way”.
Work pays for an IntelliJ licence for using Java. Java is so unwieldy without a proper IDE that it’s hard to code in it without it. I certainly don’t love it, though, and they seem determined to make every new version worse with bizarre new features. Flexible minimalist editing with configurable plugins is all that you really need, and on that basis Geany looks pretty good - will give it a try.
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Second that. Mu daily driver now. It doesn’t have every bell and whistle but by that same token it is refreshingly lightweight.
The definitely sounds like something to try. Thanks!
I’m going to give this a try today. My company only shelled out for a kinda shit laptop so running 3x visual studios and DBeaver at once is crippling. This plus terminal might do the trick.
I suggest Pragtical too, but it don’t have built-in debugger
Context, please?
JetBrains is a company that, creates one of the most popular IDE for many programming languages. Although some of them are free, there is a paid option for 200€ for their full pack for a year (you can pay monthly, and you can choose a smaller pack or individual IDE). Also every year you pay the next one is cheaper.
They also have an AI agent Junie and an AI chat assostant, both currently running on Claude Sonnet 3.5 and 4 (can choose).
They also offer a free AI, which is running locally and can do very simple autocomplete and doesn’t support any chatting ability.
However, as you might know, AI usually needs some code to work with. This autocomplete AI can be enabled to run online as well, thus sensing your code to either JB or Claude.
Of course, both chat and agent require internet access (but all this online functionality can be disabled and everything can be connected to custom AI model running locally or elsewhere, except I think agent).
OP is implying that they want money for their IDEs, their AI, and gobble up code fragments.
Oh, sorry, I should’ve been more specific.
I know about JetBrains and their AI agent, etc. I’m wondering if they recently did a switcheroo on their license/privacy policy/something that basically states “all your code are belong to us” now?
The context is that they made a blogpost that’s written in, at least in my opinion, extremely pleading tone. They are basically crying that they can’t make a good AI with public data, and if you please could turn on their new AI data collection that would steal all your code. I’ve seen a few “we will use your data for AI” posts, and this was just unsettling, with the tone in which it was written.
I can’t really say why, but I find this style of communication pretty unsettling. It does have exactly the same wibe as the picture in the post.
So, if you pay for their IDEs, nothing changes, but you can opt-in into them using your data for AI training, and they are pleading you do. If you use the free version, it’s opt out and turned on by default.
Oh, not sure about that honestly.
bro…
OOTL here. What did they do? Can’t find anything obvious on their News or Releases tabs.
if you pay you can opt-in to share your code
if you use free version you can opt-in to share your code.
if you are entitled to using a paid version for free (e. g. students, educators) you can opt-out of sharing your code.
EDIT: I was wrong, you CAN out out in the last case, which makes the meme even more stupid
Basically guaranteeing themselves the worst code source.
Unless their goal is to catch common mistakes to improve their code analysis and quick fixes, in which case this plan is secretly brilliant.
if you are entitled to using a paid version for free (e. g. students, educators) you cannot opt-out of sharing your code.
That is incorrect. According to the page you linked elsewhere:
For individuals on non-commercial licenses: Data sharing is enabled by default, but you can turn it off anytime in the settings.
(Emphasis mine)
And for all other cases it’s opt-in. No idea how you got from that that you cannot opt-out. It literally says the opposite.
thank you, I will correct all my comments regarding this
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From the other comments, it sounds like it’s opt-out for the free tier.
well, I recommend checking sources before jumping to conclusions.
https://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2025/09/30/detailed-data-sharing-for-better-ai/
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I didn’t jump to any conclusions. It was abundantly clear that what I was writing was hearsay based on secondhand information.
Tbf they will just take from people who opted out regardless no? It’s not new for companies to do that.
You generalize too much. If you think Jetbrains are likely to take peoples code even though they opted out you should substantiate that.
Fuck sending data to companies. Emacs for the win!
Emacs for the vim?
I would watch my back if I were you:#
No, the GP is saying emacs has been ported to Windows.
Vim has too.
Did someone say Oo-mox?
No? Tympanic Tickle?
But what about neovim??
Yeah… I slowly stopped using it and am just using vim, and getting docs from sources.
You can set up your LSP to work with nvim to get docs that way.
And with actual Vim.
But also with butterflies?
I use Acme.
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I think I’d be liable if my code made it through to a LLM
The thought of that is so funny. Not the company that stole the code gets held accountable, but instead the poor schmuck they stole it from to make their AI. Actually this would not even surprise me all that much.
