Microsoft today announced the private preview launch of Visual Studio Online, an online code editor the company is positioning as a companion to the Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code.
This service is based on the visual studio code, Microsoft's popular free and open-source desktop code editor. This means that Visual Studio Online will also support all the extensions that are currently available for Visual Studio code, as well as popular features like Visual Studio Code Workspace. Support for IntelliCode, Microsoft's tool for AI-assisted development which is now generally available, is also built-in.
Here the emphasis is on having a "partner" on Visual Studio Online. This does not mean to be the developer's default environment, but to make a quick edit, review the bridge request, or join a live share session.
And if you think that the name appears Visual Studio Online, then because Microsoft is actually using this name again. It's not that some time ago, Visual Studio Online was the hub of Microsoft for all things, which was before Devops. Last year, the company changed its name to Azure Devops, leaving the name open for other uses. To be honest, seeing the name, many people have always believed that Visual Studio is a web-based version of the online integrated development environment, only to be disappointed that it was not.
It is worth noting that if you do not want to wait for Microsoft to open a private preview for more users, there are also startups like coders that can provide you with a remote visual studio code environment.