Credit: Jorge Aguilar / How To Geek | VSCodium

Published 14 minutes ago

Nick Lewis is an editor at How-To Geek. He has been using computers for 20 years — tinkering with everything from the UI to the Windows registry to device firmware. Before How-To Geek, he used Python and C++ as a freelance programmer. In college, Nick made extensive use of Fortran while pursuing a physics degree.

Nick’s love of tinkering with computers extends beyond work. He has been running video game servers from home for more than 10 years using Windows, Ubuntu, or Raspberry Pi OS. He also uses Proxmox to self-host a variety of services, including a Jellyfin Media Server, an Airsonic music server, a handful of game servers, NextCloud, and two Windows virtual machines.

He enjoys DIY projects, especially if they involve technology. He regularly repairs and repurposes old computers and hardware for whatever new project is at hand. He has designed crossovers for homemade speakers all the way from the basic design to the PCB.

Nick enjoys the outdoors. When he isn’t working on a computer or DIY project, he is most likely to be found camping, backpacking, or canoeing.

There are a million and one Markdown editors out there, and many of them are actually pretty great. Despite the available options, I’m now using VSCodium almost exclusively when I need to work with Markdown. This is why.

What is Markdown?

Markdown is a popular markup language that is used to apply formatting to text.

In many ways, it is like pushing the italics or bold button in Microsoft Word, but instead of pushing a button to italicize a word or sentence, you type something instead.

For example, putting asterisks around a word will italicize it. Putting double tildes around a word or phrase will put a strikethrough line through it.

Markdown is commonly used when you need to format a document, but you want something that is lightweight, universal, and portable. You’ll frequently see markdown files (which have the .md file extension) included with coding projects, as an example.

Markdown is so popular and universal that its syntax has been incorporated into countless popular messaging and social media apps, like WhatsApp and Discord. That allows you to incorporate formatting, like italics, bold, or bullet points, into your messages without having to stop typing and start navigating through a user interface.

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The problem with Markdown editors

Many of the programs that I use regularly support Markdown, including some that I use daily, like Joplin. Joplin is a self-hosted note-taking app that I use to write down ideas, outlines, and article drafts. It has full support for Markdown.

One of the few complaints I have about the program is that the individual notebooks, or notes, aren’t stored as MD files (or even plain text) by default. Instead, they’re saved in a database file.

Joplin isn’t alone in this either—many applications that *support *Markdown require you to manually export as a Markdown file. In some regards, it makes sense, but it still isn’t something I like needing to do.

Related

Many of the Markdown editors you’ll find out there are also packed with other features. If you’re doing extensive authoring using Markdown, that might make sense. However, in my case, that just adds unnecessary complexity that is completely unnecessary for me.

VSCodium became my favorite Markdown editor

VSCodium, which is the completely free and open-source fork of Microsoft’s VS Code, doesn’t have any of the limiting factors or fluff many of these other Markdown editors. There are a few things in particular that have won me over.

VSCodium is free and universal

One of VSCodium’s (and VS Code’s) biggest strengths is the cost: It is completely free, despite being an exceptionally capable program.

Additionally, because it is free, open-source, and popular, VSCodium has been ported to most major operating systems, which means you can use it on Windows, almost every Linux distro, and macOS. If you use VSCodium as your Markdown editor, you don’t need to worry about learning a new program every time you switch from your Windows desktop to your MacBook Air, or whatever your arrangement is.

VSCodium is feature-rich but still simple

VSCodium is an extremely capable program, and if you’re willing to install some extensions and spend time configuring it, it can become almost as capable as a full integrated development environment (IDE), even though it is actually "just" an advanced text editor.

Despite the complexity it *can *offer, out of the box, VSCodium is extremely simple. You create a file and you’re met with a blank window—that’s it.

If you click the "Open preview to the side button," you’ll see what your formatting actually looks like.

Of course, if you *want *to make VSCodium a more robust Markdown editor, you can. There are a ton of extensions available that add features.

Autosave and file management

Though it isn’t a dealbreaker, I’ve found the database files used by some Markdown editors a bit troublesome at times. In general, if I’m working with Markdown, I want my files to be saved as MD or another plain text format.

VSCodium happily obliges without requiring me to jump through hoops to make it work the way I want. All I need to do is create the file with the appropriate extension and I’m set.

And, unlike Microsoft Word, VSCodium can automatically save your work *locally *without signing in to OneDrive.

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VSCodium isn’t really meant for writing or drafting, but most of the time when I’m specifically working with Markdown, I’m not interested in extremely fancy typesetting anyway. I’m doing something like writing some documentation for some code I’ve written, or providing instructions that go along with a PowerShell or Bash script.

When you need something simple, versatile, and extensible, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything better than VSCodium.