I never understood why everyone complains about atom's speed on HN. I have been using it for 3 years as my default editor with lots of plugins, never experienced performance issues.
Everything you do in Sublime is done instantly. Try opening the command panel (ctrl+shift+p) both in sublime and atom. At least a 300ms difference. Multiple cursors, switching to different panels (I can see the whole pane getting rendered in front of my eyes -- not instant!), even things like loading the list of installable plugins or installing a plugin is far, __far__ faster in sublime, assuming package control, compared to Atom!
Sublime also has this insane feature where no matter how many plugins you have installed, Sublime will still start up in about 200-300 milliseconds, as fast as notepad on Windows and faster than gedit on linux. Atom only goes slower and slower and slower the more plugins you install.
When you're used to an editor that does everything instantly, everything that takes longer than 200ms takes too long.
I am a Sublime user. Your comment has moved me to register my copy now. (I'm serious!)
End d up with brackets for a long time but as much as I hate atom. It's where the plugins at. :(
Opens instantly in Atom for me.
You will notice the difference!!11
So I'm fairly hopeful for Atom. It took years for Sublime to get to where it is today, and Atom looks like it's on track to be a great contender. ... Until then though, I'll still cherish Sublime as my go-to text editor: it's got a well earned head start.
For example, you still can't move the sidebar to the right side after all these years.
A wrong file could be something too big for Atom to open, or just a smallish XML file with all of its contents on one line. Either will lock Atom for a while on a high-spec MacBook Pro.
Other than that, I agree it's pretty fast for most things.