this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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Hi. I'm looking for a good code editor that doesn't have any AI in it at all. My problem is, I like modern code editors like VSCodium, but I think it has AI or at least supports it. I know Zed has AI and Zed is kind of complicated to use. Here are my requests for a code editor:

No AI or telemetry Built-in live preview for HTML Built-in terminal Extensions

Right now, I'm using Pulsar, but it has no live preview that I know of. Any suggestions help. I'm not a fan of notepad++, though. It's very complicated to setup and use. Thanks in advance!

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[–] somegeek@programming.dev 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

People here gave great suggestions!

  • simple graphical: Kate
  • powerful but complicated graphical: Emacs
  • simple terminal: Helix
  • Powerful but complicated terminal: Neovim
  • (honorable mention) graphical: Geany

Live HTML previews isn't a dealbreaker feature. Use external tools like https://github.com/Abenezer-Daniel-1/live-html

So now this requirement is decoupled from your editor.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

Who cares if it supports AI if it doesn't ship with it by default?

sublime editor has never steered me wrong before

[–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Helix is the least complex terminal editor in that it's easy to configure and doesn't try to outsmart you like most of the graphical ones. Neovim and Emacs are also good choices with comprehensive plugin support.

[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 7 points 19 hours ago

If you like/don't mind working in the terminal, Neovim can do basically anything, it's hyper-modular. But the learning curve is very steep. The people who use it are absolutely devoted, and it's an incredible peice of software, but it's not made with the beginner in mind.

If you want a traditional GUI app, Kate from the KDE team is a really nice, reasonably lightweight IDE. Kate IDE

It's like a simplified VSCodium. It has all the basic IDE features, LSP and syntax highlighting for 400+ programming languages, tabs/panes/window support, code breakpoints, Git integration, built-in terminal execution, and community plugins for various other features.

The one thing Kate doesn't have for your use case, is a built-in live HTML preview. Technically, Kate actually supports a simple HTML live preview if you enable it, but only in the Linux version, and from what I read online, other than very basic HTML stuff, it's not very good. There may be a community plugin that somebody built, but you would need to research that yourself.

[–] umutkzl@sh.itjust.works 2 points 20 hours ago

You can disable AI in Zed

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 day ago
[–] DrunkAnRoot@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

Neovim so many plugins and customization you can look st chadvim or lazyvim plugins for it

[–] AustralianSimon@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

VSCode and Pycharm do it all for me. You can turn all that shit off.

I think I might move to VSCodium, hail libre!

[–] Hund@feddit.nu 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Neovim. No other editor comes close to it.

[–] mik3dd0@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

I also second this!

[–] TheHobbyist@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

Vscodium

Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VS Code. VSCodium is a community-driven, freely-licensed binary distribution of Microsoft’s editor VS Code.

https://vscodium.com/

[–] hasnep@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 day ago (4 children)
[–] CodingCarpenter@lemmy.ml 1 points 22 hours ago

Looks like sublime text. How does it differ?

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 day ago

The mission page for gram, as someone unfamiliar with it until this thread, is genuinely a thing of beauty.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's great, even has a Helix mode for us Helix users!

[–] callmemagnus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Is what a thing? Helix?

[–] farooqkz@realbitcoin.cash 1 points 1 day ago

Thank you! Noted!

[–] Sivecano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Not sure about preview, but Kate?

[–] marcie@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Kate's dope for everything, small notes, code.

[–] mirshafie@europe.pub 4 points 1 day ago

Kate rules.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 day ago

It does have preview, the plugin has to be enabled/may need some libraries installed.

[–] Jozzo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I got markdown previews somehow so it can probably do HTML too!

[–] iByteABit@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you're willing to go into the terminal based editor rabbit hole, I recommend going straight to helix, coming from vim/neovim in the past it's much easier to get into and maintain since it's batteries included and doesn't take huge dotfiles to configure it like you want, and the movement feels more intuitive to me than vim's

[–] _deleted_@aussie.zone 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Zeddex@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

I don't know about VSCodiuum specifically since I use VSCode, but it does allow you to disable all AI features. Don't know about telemetry.

[–] helix@feddit.org 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You can easily disable all AI features in Zed.

[–] dracs@programming.dev 6 points 1 day ago

I was going to mention the same. Zed has a single global "Disable AI" option which works well.

[–] maxihuenu@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

not enough. we need ZERO a.i trash. Why need to waste developing energy in develop a.i shit? no need. i repeat: we need ZERO A.I trash in a text editor

[–] 404@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Gram, an AI free Zed fork, fits this perfectly.

As an other commenter mentioned, you can read their mission statement here: https://gram-editor.com/docs/mission/

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Geany is quite a nice, simple editor. Very lightweight, open-source, and no AI.

[–] Lanske@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Second this!

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

The line break system is weird and should be opt-in, not opt-out, but yes, otherwise, Geany is great! I've otherwise simply been using Xed on Linux Mint.

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Have you tried disabling the AI in Zed? There's a toggle in the settings to disable all AI features. I've disabled the AI and it's actually a really nice, responsive, clean editor. Just one toggle, and it doesn't re-enable itself. The whole "AI-native" marketing really put me off trying it, but it's now become my go-to IDE for when I'm working on a project where I want a more fully-featured IDE than Vim (my go-to for just editing text files eg standalone scripts, small projects).

If you don't want to do that, or if you try it and still don't like Zed, maybe Kate?

[–] INeedMana@piefed.zip 4 points 1 day ago

!emacs@lemmy.ml !emacs@programming.dev
I've been using it for many, many years. C++, Bash, Python, LaTeX, Rust...

The setup and learning can take a bit but once you figure it out, you can move your config file across machines. You can define your own functions, define shortcuts per mode you're in and lots more. Works both in GUI and CL

[–] IanTwenty@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

I'd like to say neovim but if notepad++ is too complicated then neovim definately is. There are 'distributions' that give you a setup ready to go e.g. Lazyvim but you're still going to have to fiddle with it sometimes.

https://www.lazyvim.org/

I don't think Lazyvim has any ai features out of the box.

If you are at all curious the 'Lazyvim for Ambitious Developers' book is a great way in and easy to skim through. Here's the chapter on ai:

https://lazyvim-ambitious-devs.phillips.codes/course/chapter-16/

I can't say for sure if the developers of neovim are using ai themselves for the codebase, I suspect they might be as they have made positive statements on it in the past. Love to hear if someone can confirm or not.

[–] stsquad@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

What do you need/use that you find in modern editors that you can't get in something like Emacs? While there are AI integrations for Emacs they are all optional.

[–] copygirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago

Not sure about live HTML preview, but I ended up picking Gram as well, on my search for AI-free software. (By the way, I found open-slopware a good resource for this.) Someone else already mentioned it in this thread, but I wanted to add some context. Gram is a fork of Zed, which is built for and with AI. It is therefore already tainted, if that's something you care about. However, I found the Manifesto neat. (It also has official support for Zig which is what I was looking for specifically at the time.)

Oh and I was also recommended Kate. I haven't gotten to try it, but it could be an alternative worth considering.

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Which operating system are you on? (Sometimes it's relevant, and you mention notepad++.)

On Linux, I like kate, but IDK if it has live html preview. I use it for Rust and general editing, not for web development admittedly.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I believe it does have HTML preview when using the document preview plugin and with kparts packages installed. When ive used the preview tool i think you can have a split screen view with one half the file and the other the preview, but ive not tested it with html.

I like Kate myself, its a good editor with support for numerous languages, and a decent session system and a range of plugins.

Built-in live preview for HTML

Only in electron based editors AFAIK. It requires an integrated browser engine, and electron already is an integrated browser engine so that makes it easy.

[–] jaypatelani@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago
[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Helix and Gram. Try em out. Gram even has a Helix bindings mode.

[–] Bell@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

+1 for pulsar