Why IntelliJ Killed Eclipse (And We’re Not Even Sad)

Do you remember Eclipse?

Yeah, that big, clunky IDE we all had to use in college or our first job. Eclipse was once the king of Java development. Open source. Customizable. Backed by giants. It was the go-to IDE.

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But fast forward to today — most developers don’t even bother installing it. What happened?

Let’s talk about the slow downfall of Eclipse and how IntelliJ quietly took over the throne.

Eclipse: The Good Old Days

Back in the early 2000s , Eclipse was everywhere. It was free, extendable, and supported every language under the sun — Java, C++, PHP, you name it. There were hundreds of plugins, and big enterprises loved it.