April 6, 2026
Tiny editor, huge feelings
SideX – A Tauri-based port of Visual Studio Code
VS Code goes on a Rust diet—fans cheer, skeptics shout “where are the screenshots”
TLDR: SideX wants to make Visual Studio Code feel smaller and faster by replacing its heavy shell with a lighter one, but it’s very early and unfinished. Fans love the anti-bloat mission, while skeptics demand proof, clearer docs, and working extensions before they believe the hype.
SideX is pitching a “same VS Code, smaller and faster” dream by swapping heavy Electron (a web-app wrapper that often eats memory) for Tauri (a lighter shell backed by the Rust language). The devs say it’s an early build, not everything works, and they want contributors—no prebuilt downloads yet, just source. And the crowd? Absolutely feral.
On Team Hype, folks are thrilled to see a lighter VS Code. One fan practically popped confetti over the idea of ditching “bloat.” The promise: familiar editor, themes, terminal, and extensions—just running in a native shell with a fraction of the size. The devs list what’s working now: the editor, a terminal, basic Git, themes, and extensions via Open VSX. Sounds dreamy, right?
But hold that champagne. The skeptics rolled in with calculators and side-eye. One commenter groaned that calling a 200MB memory footprint “lightweight” is comedy. Another drilled the project’s readme: bold claims up top, followed by disclaimers that many features are stubs. Cue the quote-of-the-thread calling the whole thing “LLM soup.” And yes, someone dragged it for “vibe coded UI translation” and no screenshots, questioning how it landed on the front page.
The real drama is the extension story. The project says extensions load, but the “extension host” (the engine that runs them) is early-stage—so will your favorite plugin work? Maybe, maybe not. For now, SideX is a flashy promise with a rough edge: fans want a faster editor; critics want proof, clarity, and receipts.
Key Points
- •SideX is an early-release, open-source Tauri-based port of Visual Studio Code aiming for a 1:1 architectural match while replacing Electron with a Rust backend and native webview.
- •Core working features include the Monaco editor (syntax highlighting, basic IntelliSense), file explorer, integrated terminal (PTY via Rust), basic Git, themes, native menus, and extension loading from Open VSX.
- •Many features remain incomplete or unstable, including the extension host, debugging, settings/keybindings UI, some platform services, and limited multi-window support.
- •Setup requires Node.js 20+, Rust 1.77.2+, and Tauri platform dependencies; development uses npm run tauri dev, and production builds use a memory-increased frontend build followed by npx tauri build.
- •The architecture maps Electron components to Tauri/Rust equivalents (e.g., main process→Rust backend, BrowserWindow→WebviewWindow, Node APIs→Rust commands) and the repository separates TypeScript frontend from Rust backend, with a call for community contributions.