Atom and VS Code are copies of the successful Sublime app. Although it may be more accurate to say that VS Code is a copy of Atom and Atom is a copy of Sublime.
I think VS and VS Code are about as similar to each other as Java and JavaScript. In other words, the names are similar, but everything else is not so similar.
UX defines products, not underlying tech. VS & VS Code share default keyboard shortcuts, UI look & feel, Intellisense, refactoring tools, and in-editor debugging. As a long-time, long-ago user of VS, VS Code immediately felt familiar to me. That's no accident.
As a long time user of VS.NET and VS before (yes, I started coding a long time ago), VS Code is clearly patterned on Sublime's and Atom.io's UI concepts.
> As a long time user of VS.NET and VS before (yes, I started coding a long time ago)
^ Same here. VB5, ASP ("Classic,") FoxPro... up to ASP.NET MVC & C#4.0. Then Sublime was my primary editor for several years after I left the Windows ecosystem for Mac.
> VS Code is clearly patterned on Sublime's and Atom.io's UI concepts.
It'd be more accurate to say that it's a hybrid of VS & Sublime/Atom's UI concepts. An elegantly executed hybrid, at that.
My original (if implicit) claim was simply that VS Code is a member of the VS product line. I stand by that.
That's competition for you. Also, I like how you use the word "copying", as if the guy was the original creator of the text editor.