This VS Code Killer Just Went Open Source (Written In Rust BTW)

Summary

The video discusses the open-source code editor Zed, created by the original developers of Atom. It provides a comparison to VS Code, praising Zed's native performance, collaboration features, and UI focus while critiquing its lack of plugin support. The video explores Zed's strengths like git integration and typescript support as well as weaknesses like scrolling jankiness. Overall, it seems impressed by Zed given it doesn't lean on existing work but notes VS Code's ecosystem advantages. It hopes competition drives future innovation.

Takeaways

• 😀 Zed is a new open source code editor created by the original Atom creators focused on performance and collaboration
• 👀 It has native-level performance compared to Electron based editors like VSCode
• 💻 The scrolling, text rendering and git operations feel much faster than VSCode
• 🔬 It has good TypeScript support like go to definition and intelligent autocompletion
• 🤝 It has built-in collaboration features like chat, screen sharing and collaborative editing
• 🚀 The editor is built using their own GPU accelerated UI framework called GPI
• 🤖 It has AI autocomplete through GitHub CoPilot built-in with no extensions needed
• 💪 It seems to match most of the must-have VSCode features with better performance
• 📦 The lack of a plugin system results in hacky workarounds to support things like Tailwind
• 🔌 Overall it shows promise but needs more maturity and plugin support before mass adoption

Q & A

What text editor does the narrator mainly use?

The narrator mainly uses VS Code as their text editor.

What is the narrator's opinion on the performance of VS Code compared to native editors?

The narrator feels VS Code's performance is noticeably slower compared to native editors like Sublime Text and Vim, especially for basic actions like text appearing after key presses.

What is Zed and what are its main goals?

Zed is a new open source text editor focused on performance and collaboration. Its main goals are to match native performance while providing an extensible plugin ecosystem like VS Code.

Why did the Zed team decide to open source Zed?

The Zed team believes open sourcing will attract more contributors to improve Zed, and connecting directly with developers matches their mission of building the best editor.

What is the GPI library Zed uses?

GPI is a GPU-accelerated UI framework for creating high performance desktop applications using Rust.

How does the narrator feel about Zed's built-in collaboration tools?

The narrator sees potential in the deep integration opportunities but the current UX is rough, especially accidentally starting audio calls by clicking on usernames.

What VS Code extensions would the narrator miss if switching to Zed?

The narrator would mainly miss the Pretty Typescript Errors and Quick Lint JS extensions which improve error messages and catch common issues.

What does the narrator think Zed needs to attract developers from VS Code?

The narrator believes Zed needs to focus on UX wins and 'wow' moments that make the editor demonstrably better, rather than just matching existing functionality.

Why does the narrator think creators are a good initial target audience for Zed?

The narrator argues that by targeting creators and influencers first, Zed can both leverage their reach and get feedback from power users deeply familiar with their audience's needs.

What is the narrator's overall assessment of Zed's potential?

While not planning to switch yet, the narrator is excited by the innovation happening in Zed and believes the competition will push all editors to improve.