Thread

1. hypfer · 1790079832 · focus · HN ↗

   Semi-OT, but does anyone here know what exactly happened at JetBrains?

   Their IDEs have been nosediving for years now in a way usually reserved to "has been acquired by private equity". But they have not been acquired by private equity as far as I can tell.

   I'm writing this from my laptop, where each keypress in a .md file in WebStorm makes the fan spin up (not hyperbole).

   What happened, JetBrains?

   1. pauleveritt · 1790083173 · focus · HN ↗

      JetBrainer here. I can promise: not...private..equity. In my conference talks I like to brag that I get to work at the last independent: private, profitable, European. It's a cool gig.

      The answer is more like the obvious one...our category is getting redefined, at hyper-speed, and all of the players are all over the map trying to sort this out.

      I like what we're doing with JetBrains Air. We know what we bring to the table, who it's for, and we're doubling down on developers and development.

      That said, CPU fan on Markdown is not cool. Want me to look through it with you?

      1. hypfer · 1790083815 · focus · HN ↗

         > Want me to look through it with you?

         Honestly not really.

         I mean I am happy that there is some kind of response, but this is just damage control.

         And, frankly, you do not need me to fix that. Of that I am certain.

         I'm not running any weird setups or something out of the ordinary. If you actually test your software on a normal computer (think: random thinkpad with 8th gen intel cpu), running some random boring linux distribution (think: debian) you will run into these problems.

         The bad experiences all so far have been smoke-test-level issues.

         Or.. well. Product strategy. Not even bugs or performance issues at all.

         __

         But, yeah, you had to say something. I understand that, given your role as "developer advocate" (as per the HN account about section). This is your job after all.

         But, honestly, sticking ones head in the sand and hoping that this passes might've been the strategically more wise move.

         The problems your employer has cannot be fixed by one person taking their time and looking at an individual issue some other vocal guy on the web has. I think we both know that.

         I'm sorry, genuinely.

         1. the__alchemist · 1790087461 · focus · HN ↗

            Nailed it, and have had this response before. Summarized:

              - This is a real problem with JB IDEs
              - It is not specific to an individual's setup
              - It has existed for many years
              - Anyone at JB who actually is interested in diagnosing or fixing it does not need to extract details, support tickets, or logs from users, as it's trivial to reproduce on any system.

      2. Timon3 · 1790098461 · focus · HN ↗

         Hi! Like many others here, I was a long-time subscriber of the whole suite, but hitting ten different bugs in Rider in a single day broke the camel's back - especially after I'd already given up on WebStorm once it became completely unusable on a medium-sized React codebase.

         I really hope that you guys manage to turn the ship around, but after experiencing the decline myself and paying until this year, all my goodwill towards Jetbrains has been used up. At this point, I would never consider paying full price again.

         Have you guys discussed (if you're able to share) allowing customers to resume subscriptions, which they've cancelled during the decline years? For me, that would be an important step to rebuilding trust.

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