GitHub is discontinuing Atom text editor in December

GitHub pulls the plug on its text editor Atom. After December 15, the developer tool will be archived. This also applies to all projects that fall under Atom. GitHub wants to shift focus to GitHub Codespaces.

GitHub says it is discontinuing its text editor Atom because the involvement of the Atom community would have decreased. This would be due to the advent of more and improved cloud-based tools over the years.

In recent months, GitHub has only made some security and maintenance updates. No major updates have been released. By stopping Atom, the platform for developers wants to focus more on the cloud environment GitHub Codespaces.

Atom was officially introduced in 2014 and has served as the basis for the software framework Electron. Apps such as Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Slack, and GitHub Desktop are developed with Electron. Atom can still be downloaded and used until December 15, 2022, after which the tool will be archived.

GitHub indicates that there is a good chance that the open source tool Atom will be forked by other developers and recommends other free alternatives, such as VS Code. GitHub also mentions that Atom developers have started working with their own text editor named Zed.