5 best open source IDEs for programming
Tags: opensource, programming, security, productivity
Published: 2023-10-07 13:32:18

## 1) **Neovim** 

Neovim is a **highly customizable, extensible,** and **feature-rich** IDE that has gained popularity among developers and power users for **its efficiency, speed, and versatility.**

It is an evolved fork of the venerable Vim (Vi IMproved), designed to address some of Vim's limitations and to provide a modern, community-driven development environment for text editing and coding tasks.


![neovim](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/oqa0uwy76imlxtf7s6ti.png)

## 2) **Pulsar**

Pulsar is a **community-led, hyper-hackable** text editor **forked from Atom** and **built on Electron**. It is designed to be deeply **customizable**, but **still approachable using the default configuration,** and also  **cross-platform editor** that works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. 

It **has** a built-in **package manager** that **allows users** to **search** **and install** new **packages** or **create** their **own** right from the editor. Pulsar also has a smart **autocomplete feature** that helps users **write code faster**.


![pulsar](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0sctpq5iamufld6kb4ch.png)

## 3) **KDevelop** 

KDevelop is a **free** and **open-source** IDE for Unix-like, Windows, and macOS operating systems. It provides **editing, navigation,** and **debugging features** for several programming languages, and **integration with build automation** and **version-control systems**, using a **plugin-based architecture.**

And also KDevelop is a **good choice** for developers who are looking for a **powerful** and **versatile IDE** that is still **easy to use**. It is especially **well-suited** for **C** and **C++ development**, but it also supports other languages such as **Python, QML/JavaScript, PHP, Ruby** and **Rust**.


![kdevelop](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/3jwcacyxggl92f2smn1n.png)

## 4) **VS Codium**

VSCodium is a **community-driven, freely-licensed binary** distribution of **Microsoft's Visual Studio Code editor**. It is identical to VS Code in terms of features and functionality, but **it removes all Microsoft branding, telemetry,** and **licensing restrictions**. This makes VSCodium a **good choice** for users **who want to use a code editor without any data being collected or shared, or who prefer to use open source software.**

![vscodium](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/oq6ghs99nf0qnwc4fbjo.png)

## 5) **Geany**

Geany is a **free** and **open-source lightweight text editor** using **Scintilla** and **GTK**, including basic IDE features. It is designed to **have short load times**, with **limited dependency** on separate **packages** or **external libraries on Linux**. 

In contrast to traditional Unix-based editors like Emacs or Vim, Geany more **closely** resembles **programming editors common on Microsoft Windows** such as **Notepad++,** which also **uses Scintilla**. It is **free software licensed** under the terms of the **GNU GPL version 2 or later**.


![geany](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9enkag3zzywfscwx22ll.png)

---

## Thanks for reading the article!

**My GNU/Linux distribution under development:** https://github.com/hubshluft/