Yknow, I really didn't mind Claude Code that badly, but subjectively speaking I really do like Codex more after using it for a couple weeks. Feels a bit snappier and lighter weight. I know with OpenAI you can actually use third party tools with the subscription so there's less of a draw to using Codex, but I still find myself preferring it now.

Is this because Codex is written in Rust and not JS? I dunno. I think it's more just "lighter" in general, or it certainly feels that way. It's probably possible to make something with a similar feel in JS, just perhaps not with the big honking mess they've created.

Codex appears to be a mildly complex, somewhat-but-not-outrageously-sloppy Rust program (yes, I’ve poked around at its source — thank you OpenAI for making it more or less open source). It has lots of features, mostly related all the fancy web features of Codex.

Claude Code seems to be an insanely complex program will all manner of cutesy features and telemetry features. The net result is approximately the same as Codex, but it’s pretty common in software engineering to find a simple thing and a complex thing that do more or less the same thing.