JetBrains has released IntelliJ IDEA 2024.3, its IDE for Java and Kotlin, along with updated versions of other IDEs in the same family, including PHPStorm, PyCharm, GoLand and RubyMine, with a host of improvements. Many developers, however, remain unhappy with the user interface changes which became the default in July.

In the new release K2 mode, an update to the internals of the IDE, is “stable and ready for general use,” according to the notes on what’s new. K2 mode improves performance and stability as well as reducing memory consumption, the company claims. It is not the same as the new-generation Kotlin K2 compiler, but uses this compiler to power features such as code highlighting and code completion. In our case K2 mode was not on by default, and we enabled it in settings; it is optional because of compatibility issues with some plugins.

A more visible new feature (reserved for the Ultimate edition) is a Logical code structure view in the Structure window, which shows links and interactions between project components. There is also improved remote debugging for Kubernetes applications (again Ultimate only) which makes the developer machine “a virtual part of the Kubernetes cluster,” the notes state, so that a microservice can be debugged locally while interacting with remote services.

There are also AI assistant enhancements, with a choice of chat models between Google Gemini, OpenAI, or local models, and inline API prompts for Java, Kotlin, Scala, Groovy, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, JSON, and YAML.

JetBrains has also worked on improving the experience for Windows developers using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) 2.0, with support for symlinks and a switch to Hyper-V sockets.

Excellent support for WSL and remote development is a key feature of Microsoft’s VS Code, deterring some developers from the JetBrains IDEs. The company said that “we are continuing to work on significant platform changes to improve performance with remote environments, including WSL.”

JetBrains though is still facing resistance from many developers who dislike major UI changes recently introduced, and which became the default in the previous release. The “new UI” was developed as a “modern, lightweight interface that follows current industry trends” according to a post in October, though a “classic UI” plugin that restores the old user interface will be supported until “at least July 2025.” The company said that “at some point, the classic UI will be deprecated.”

Over 100,000 developers have downloaded the classic UI plugin, with common complaints being that the icons are less clear, the UI too minimalist, and the overall look too similar to Microsoft’s VS Code.

That said, JetBrains maintains a strong following. This year, perhaps motivated by the desire to keep pace with the free VS Code, the company made a number of its IDEs, specifically WebStorm, Rider (for C#), RustRover and Aqua (test automation), free for non-commercial use.

Full information on enhancements to other JetBrains IDEs is available via product-specific blogs.