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Sequoia backs Zed

zed.dev

61–70 of 346 posts

Re: Sequoia backs Zed

#61
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why you are being downvoted. This is a real issue and a legitimate concern to have as a user of this software. I feel the same way (never used Zed in the first place because they are VC backed, but this would have been the final straw for me, too).

[flagged]

A sibling comment claims that making a comment like this constitutes waging a 'political'/'ideological' battle that 'tramples curiosity', because raising a legitimate concern is inherently ideological, but silencing any and all scrutiny of a VC is not.

Re: Sequoia backs Zed

#62
post #20

I love the spirit of Zed. From the principles to the low-level implementation details, it all screams "good taste". It's immensely interesting as an object of study (the code is great, from GPUI all the way up). Having said that, I don't think an editor should be VC backed. It's the obvious pragmatic choice to get a team together to support a thing, but I'm concerned by it.

Same. Especially not having been familiar with who Sequoia is. Altman, Huang, Musk, etc.

Re: Sequoia backs Zed

#63
Not a good move. Evernote went that path and then turned an otherwise very useful app into a VC bet that forced the founders to pivot the app into something nobody wanted. Same happened to Soundcloud.

Re: Sequoia backs Zed

#64
post #30

> To make this possible, we're building DeltaDB: a new kind of version control that tracks every operation, not just commits. Let me guess: DeltaDB is free to use as long as we host your data and have free range on training AI based on your editor interactions.

Definitely sounds very eerie. Luckily there are open source solutions that do just this with no AI integration: https://github.com/atuinsh/atuin

how is atuin doing what deltaDB does?

Re: Sequoia backs Zed

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note to Zed: I prefer paid products to enshittened ones. Please please please, get paid rather than holding on too tightly to making things free forcing future enshittening.

We're working on it! :) You can pay for Zed today if you'd like - https://zed.dev/pricing - and also the editor itself is open-source under the GPLv3 license. So if at any point in the future Zed changes direction in a way you don't like, you are perpetually free to build the version you liked from source (or make a community fork and take it in a different direction).

I already pay for Zed Pro, but my fear (and likely GP's as well) is that this doesn't provide enough revenue for the team.

Since switching from Emacs last year, I have absolutely loved how this editor has evolved, and I am looking for any way to directly support the effort. I have been a Zed Pro subscriber for quite a while now, and I have started trying to contribute to the codebase, but I really wish there were monetization options beyond making a spread on Anthropic API pricing.

Re: Sequoia backs Zed

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're working on it! :) You can pay for Zed today if you'd like - https://zed.dev/pricing - and also the editor itself is open-source under the GPLv3 license. So if at any point in the future Zed changes direction in a way you don't like, you are perpetually free to build the version you liked from source (or make a community fork and take it in a different direction).

This will sound a bit odd, but I don't necessarily want to pay in a way that makes it look like I'm paying for the AI rather than the editor.

Yeah, same here, the least interesting aspect for me.

Re: Sequoia backs Zed

#69
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with accepting VC money is they will eventually demand a return on their investment, which means that the forces that drive enshitification will eventually come for Zed in some form. I suspect that we'll see more and more features locked behind a paid subscription and the open core of the editor will become neglected over time. Here I am on my free-as-in-freedom operating system, making commits with my fr…

Note to Zed: I prefer paid products to enshittened ones. Please please please, get paid rather than holding on too tightly to making things free forcing future enshittening.

Unless they have very unusual terms on their funding, it isn't really entirely in their control in the long term. Hopefully they find a way to make their investors whole that doesn't suck for everyone else, but if not, well, I at least appreciate that the editor is truly open source, since at least it offers a contingency plan in the worst cases.

If I'm wrong I'd love to know, but I think that we need to start talking about what funding really implies more honestly. It's traditionally met with unabashed enthusiasm and congratulations, which I totally understand, but it's a mutual exchange, not an award or a grant. I absolutely believe that everyone wants to make good on their promises, but promises made to users are not legally binding, and the track record for upholding those has not been great. Plus, as a user, I want to pay for software, but nothing feels worse than paying, then watching enshittification unfold anyways... When this happens, the investors should send you a nice postcard thanking you for paying back some of their money.

Can $20/mo sustain a text editor company with a massive multimillion dollar valuation? Well, we'll see. Good luck Zed Industries, we're all counting on you.

Re: Sequoia backs Zed

#70
post #27

> we've been building the world's fastest IDE Any data to backup this?

You can try it out. I would say it’s aiming to be a more modern Sublime Text, which is a win to be considered in the same category imo.

I have tried it out and by default it was so slow as to be unusable. After discovering it required some customization in /etc (because it's the only GUI application that fails to recognize my GPU on a very popular distro with next to zero customization, because I game a lot on Linux - weird how that's a me problem and not a Zed problem) it got better, but still noticeably slower than VS Code.

The modern Sublime Text is Sublime Text. There is way too much "extra" in Zed to compare it. If anything, it's a new IntelliJ.

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