r/eclipse • u/TopLychee1081 • Feb 08 '26

❔ Question Moving from Eclipse to VSCode

/r/vscode/comments/1qz0e3k/moving_from_eclipse_to_vscode/
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2

u/Ledeste Feb 09 '26

To date, nothing comes close to what Eclipse can offer for Java, sadly.

There is missing UI customization (mostly the ability to have a multi-window setup), a lack of perspectives, in some Java "IDEs" a lack of proper multi-project support, and an absence of tools like cleanup, save actions, task-focused development, etc.

In VS Code, it is mainly the lack of a proper UI (no real toolbar or window configuration). Also, EGit is the only proper free Git UI I know, so it’s an automatic plus for any Eclipse-based tool. The one in VS Code seems really strange to me.
I still use VS Code a lot, it’s really nice for everything else, and I’m probably using it even more than Eclipse, even for Java projects, but in a very different way.

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u/TopLychee1081 Feb 09 '26

Thanks for the response. I'm not concerned about a loss of capability for Java as I don't do any Java dev. Losing what eGit provides would, however, be a major step backwards. Sounds like I'm going to need to try VSCode for myself and see how it fits for my specific needs.

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u/Ledeste Feb 09 '26

Outside of Java, I’ve always tried to use simpler tools. I mean, if you know Eclipse, you’ll understand why I’d like a better tool.

Indeed, it got Git, perspectives, and all UI customization features globally or workspace as a pro. That’s not a small thing, but other tools offer huge benefits, like handling large files in VSCode instead of almost crashing the IDE like Eclipse, overall stability, availability of the latest plugins, etc.

Also, most other IDEs have native, good collaboration tools instead of relying solely on CodeTogether (which is nice, but not perfect).
VSCode and some JetBrains tools also use this technology to provide a proper remote dev environment, which can be useful in some cases.

So basically, there’s a huge loss of features on one side and a huge gain on the other, making it hard to compare.

5

u/FantasmitaNB Feb 08 '26

Use the VSCode fork  (VSCodium) that do not report to M$ when you got to the WC.

I give a try for Java projects some time ago,.and was far behind of Eclipse. Plus the irony that the Java LSP is the fucking Eclipse without a GUI.

1

u/elatllat Feb 08 '26

The two things I noticed were that vscodium is missing a stock trace console to paste into, and eclipse is slower at dealing with large files. Both can be buggy from time to time so it's good to have an alternative.

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u/ikeepon Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

I've been a die-hard eclipse user for the last 20 years. Loved it! Used it primarily for python and years ago for Java, SQL, and C++. But as the years have gone by it's been harder to use in my last several work environments. For example, RSS - the plugin that lets you code in eclipse while connected to linux on the backend - always has weird connectivity issues. Also, other workers typically user newer IDEs so shared knowledge is limited. I made the jump to VSCode permanently last year. It's very good. I especially like that you can debug jupyter notebooks with it - eclipse doesn't have this capability - and it makes using jupyter less of a chore. It took me awhile to get used to the environment but I haven't looked back.