I switched from VSCode to Zed • Hacker News Board

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#281

Post by keyle » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 4:43 AM UTC

joelthelion wrote: post #146

I've been using vim for 20 years. It's gotten me through all the evolutions of programming, from ctags, to language servers, to AI with copilot. There's something extremely satisfying about having a dependable free software editor, available on all systems, and not having to change every time a new fad comes in, or a VC decides it's time to make money.

I went from intellij to emacs, to zed / vscode to vim... Even neovim was getting on my nerves.

For some reason I'm happy in vim. I feel I understand most of what's happening. Not sure what It is.

I still use vscode for debugging (breakpoints etc.) as it's just the easiest. Maybe there is a workflow with lldb that I could use to debug within vim...

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#282

Post by Heidaradar » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 4:50 AM UTC

do you use ANY AI tools like Claude Code etc? if not, why not?

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#283

Post by WolfeReader » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 4:50 AM UTC

CuriouslyC wrote: post #264

WolfeReader wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should really look in to the difference between opt-in and opt-out. Opt-in respects the user; opt-out is for foisting features that the user might not need or want.

The anti-AI folks should just fork everything at this point, because it's hypocritical as hell to complain about it and use a bunch of stuff built with it. Then you can opt out of society!

Oh no, just think of all the good AI-produced things we'll be missing out on.

...are there any?

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#284

Post by spiderice » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 4:51 AM UTC

replete wrote: post #30

jonkoops wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Organizations are composed of individuals, if your organization is tied to a specific IDE to be able to function, that seems like a huge problem.

Ecosystem.

If your organization's "ecosystem" is tied to a specific editor, your organization has major issues.

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#285

Post by spiderice » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 4:54 AM UTC

alimbada wrote: post #91

Obligatory Zed takes money from bigots: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/discussions/36604

Nice. Just signed up for their pro plan.

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#286

Post by vbezhenar » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 4:56 AM UTC

httpsterio wrote: post #277

vbezhenar wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My default settings are stored in a 11922 line json file. And I thought my 50 lines settings.json is getting unmanageable and needs some cutting. WoW.

I'm guessing the user you're replying to is meaning that the vscode default config file is 11k lines and the AI setting just one of many lines in the file. I don't think they meant that their own settings are that long, just the default in the app and they're commenting that it's ridiculous to expect a person to find it there.

Ah, well, I found this AI setting via github issues browsing, LoL, so yeah it's kind of hidden. May be there are better ways.

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#287

Post by baby » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 4:59 AM UTC

adonese wrote: post #93

Sublime is quite good. I have always been using sublime for quick edits, dumping notes etc. But lately I came to appreciate it more as a lightweight IDE. I use go (lsp and some plugins) and ST (sqltools) in addition to package manager and project manager. I like how fast it is, how well polished the editor is. And generally all plug-ins i use work nicely. Also claude helped a lot (eg writing some shortcuts for specif…

I use emacs as my "lightweight" IDE in the terminal and it's not light at all. Always a big install on a new server and takes ages to start up. I wish I had learned vim instead.

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#288

Post by CuriouslyC » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 5:01 AM UTC

WolfeReader wrote: post #283

CuriouslyC wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The anti-AI folks should just fork everything at this point, because it's hypocritical as hell to complain about it and use a bunch of stuff built with it. Then you can opt out of society!

Oh no, just think of all the good AI-produced things we'll be missing out on. ...are there any?

I'd say the percentage of stuff developed using AI now is higher than the percentage of pro athletes who use performance enhancing drugs, and there's almost as much incentive to mask it and say "made without AI"

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#289

Post by habosa » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 5:05 AM UTC

So did I. I was just curious if it would really be noticeable faster and … wow yes it is. It’s really nice to use.

VSCode is still more polished and I’m going to keep it installed, but I’ve been using Zed for a month now and loving it.

Re: I switched from VSCode to Zed

#290

Post by kopirgan » Tue, Jan 06, 2026, 5:09 AM UTC

I am not much of a programmer only fool around a bit for fun and occasional profit. I find Helix to be very good for coding. Compared to Neovim, I could get LSPs going for go, c without any effort. Only thing is I haven't figured out much of debugging which I guess is must have for a serious coder. My favorite is printf and is enough for me across go, awk, c , Excel VBA macros and JS!