You don't need Neovim to use Vim

Five months into my Vim journey, I have a confession. I don't use Neovim as my main editor.

Don't get me wrong. Neovim is incredible. I use it in my terminal for quick edits and config files. You can even see me using Neovim in Alacritty in some of my videos. But for daily coding? I use VS Code with the Vim extension.

Here's why.

The Neovim rabbit hole

Setting up Neovim from scratch is a project in itself. You need to learn Lua to configure it. You need to choose between dozens of plugin managers. You need to configure LSP, autocompletion, file trees, fuzzy finders, git integration, and a hundred other things that VS Code gives you out of the box.

Want to rename a variable across your project? In VS Code, press F2 (or fn + F2 on Mac). Done. In Neovim, you first need to set up an LSP server for your language, configure the keybindings, and hope everything works together.

I spent entire weekends tweaking my Neovim config. It was fun, but it wasn't productive. Every time I wanted to code, I ended up configuring my editor instead.

The real power of Vim

After months of using Vim, I realized something. The magic isn't in Vim the editor. It's in Vim the language.

The way you think in Vim is what makes you faster. Delete inside quotes. Change until the end of the line. Yank the current paragraph. These commands work the same whether you're in Neovim, VS Code, or any editor with Vim bindings.

The motions are portable. The muscle memory transfers. The editor is just a shell.

VS Code + Vim extension

Install the Vim extension in VS Code and you get the best of both worlds. Full Vim motions with zero configuration. All your existing VS Code extensions still work. The integrated terminal, debugger, Git panel, everything stays the same.

You can start coding immediately instead of spending days on setup.

Some people say it's not "real" Vim. Maybe. But I care about getting work done, not editor purity. The Vim extension covers 95% of what I use daily. For the other 5%, I drop into Neovim in my terminal.

When to use Neovim

Neovim makes sense if you enjoy customizing your tools. If configuring your editor brings you joy, go for it. Building your own setup teaches you a lot.

It also makes sense for remote work. SSH into a server and Neovim is right there. No VS Code remote extension needed.

But if you just want Vim motions without the setup? VS Code with the Vim extension is the practical choice. Learn the motions first. You can always switch to Neovim later when you're ready for more.

The goal is to edit text efficiently. How you get there matters less than actually getting there.