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Comment by matsemann | Hacker News Reader

I love how all the panels/windows in Jetbrains are just text. Like "run", "maven", "database", "terminal". The new icons take up more than twice the space (thickness vs the vertical text), and conveys nothing at all about what they do.

Also one of the reasons I'm not that thrilled about Fleet. I get it's easy to just in general be negative to change. But these are professional tools. I've used it for over a decade. I don't need it to be dumbed down.

Right now I'm comfortable and never enjoyed VSCode and others. But if I'm forced this change, what's stopping me then from trying a completely different IDE?

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From their FAQ:

    Will Fleet replace any existing JetBrains IDEs?
    
    No, it will not. We are fully committed to continuing active development of our IntelliJ-based IDEs. With Fleet, we’re aiming to offer an alternative view on how an IDE can be organized, and this is impossible to implement within our current product line without going against the expectations of developers currently using those other IDEs. This means Fleet will co-exist with our established products.
    
    Additionally, Fleet heavily relies on the IntelliJ code-processing engine for its smart code-editing features, such as project-aware and context-aware code completion, navigation to definitions and usages, refactorings, on-the-fly code quality checks, and quick-fixes.

> This means Fleet will co-exist with our established products

This means it will take resources away from the development of the established products. You cannot have the cake and eat it.

Fleet has been in development for multiple years. It has already "taken away" dev resource. It is not my our job to micro manage their dev resources.

You can vote with your wallet though.

  > It is not my our job to micro manage their dev resources.

But my job does include heavy use of their tools. And I have dozens of bugs filed on the Jetbrains IDEs - some minor but some major. So in fact their allocation of dev resources does affect my ability to do my job, even if I'm not in charge of allocating their resources.

100x

This is something else:

    While Fleet is a new product representing our attempt to rebuild the entire IDE from scratch, the new UI is a redesign of the existing JetBrains IDE product line.

~ https://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2022/05/take-part-in-the-new...

I'm the same on icons vs text. I read the text label and "know". An icon is horrible as I find them meaningless, so I have to click or hover to check for tooltips.

Another reason icons suck is that different apps use the same or similar icons for different things, my memory just doesn't "click" with simplistic icons.

The old UI is information dense but easy to work with. It is one of the reasons I went to and paid for Jetbrains on my own dime, rather than using VS Code like others at my workplace.

The new UI looks nice but it won't work well for me. If they want everything to be so similar to VS Code then I might as well use that.

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