> Computers are only going to get faster. Browsers are only going to get better at running JavaScript

Sure, but it will still take a long time for it to reach parity with other text editors (and even if/when it gets better, Atom will likely get Vista-ized, where people just remember the bad parts of the early releases and refuse to use the later release). It's not like Atom does terribly much that others don't do; this might be more excusable if it were a whole new editing paradigm.

> Also, you get browser stuff for free. XHRs work in Atom. Even WebRTC video chat works in Atom.

Well, not exactly for free since we're discussing Atom's performance issues. Couldn't it have worked better to write most of the editor more typically and then extend it to work with these after the fact? Then the people that need them have them, but the people that don't aren't saddled with the overhead.

Not that much, and not in single core performance (which JS basically uses).

Besides, native will get faster at the same rate.