There’s a fast new code editor in town

Take a first look at Zed - a fast new code editor written in Rust with AI built in. Learn the pros and cons of this promising new developer tool and compare Zed to VS Code.
#programming #tech #thecodereport
💬 Chat with Me on Discord
/ discord
🔗 Resources
Zed Editor zed.dev/
Magic Code Coworker magic.dev/
AI coding assistants • AI coding assistants j...
🔥 Get More Content - Upgrade to PRO
Upgrade at fireship.io/pro
Use code YT25 for 25% off PRO access
🎨 My Editor Settings
- Atom One Dark
- vscode-icons
- Fira Code Font
🔖 Topics Covered
- Rust-based code editor
- Zed vs Visual Studio Code
- Is Zed a VS Code killer?
- Latest AI programming features
- What is the fastest text editor for programmers?
- Is programming becoming obsolete?

[@CTSSTC]

Time to upgrade my monitor to utilize that sweet 120 FPS coding 😂.

[@Microphunktv-jb3kj]

lmao.. human eye cant even differentiate past 72hz

[@CTSSTC]

@@Microphunktv-jb3kj but it makes my smooth brain happy 🤤 haha

[@chihchang1139]

@@Microphunktv-jb3kj it's useful for vr devices, but 120 fps is barely enough. It's also kinda stupid to have only 120fps on a code editor.

[@thetower8553]

@@Microphunktv-jb3kj The human eye can't see any hope with AI around.

[@GetPsyched6]

​@@Microphunktv-jb3kjI'm pretty sure that's bs

[@langobardo]

The "we are here" at 1:13 Is somewhere near Fortaleza Canyon in Cambará do Sul southern Brazil for anyone wondering.

[@bobi7310]

thank you was going crazy abt that

[@Deffinnition]

Indeed, I recognized it immediately after seeing it!

[@flaco7768]

Brazil ❤🇧🇷

[@berteabdel7722]

You're gonna attract all the smooth brain Brazilians trying to speak Portuguese in the comments.

[@ShizoMoses]

Thanks, man, genuinely was.

[@AegirAexx]

You had me until "A Mac only editor..." and sadly then the video was over. Well played sir.

[@genghischan69]

Who even does real coding on Windows? Linux yes, but windows.. only for game development, because NVidia made it so that there's no other choice there.

[@AegirAexx]

@@genghischan69 One of the things I do in my day job is maintaining and developing a .NET Framework application and sadly that is rather difficult to do on other than a Windows machine. Getting everything to function with Mono is just a waste of time like ricing an Arch distro with a suckless window manger. Real coding? Well I get paid real money writing real code so by definition I guess it's real?

[@MinecraftMasterNo1]

@@genghischan69 You can run Linux on Windows now. No point in using only Linux unless you really just hate Windows.

[@kyurion_]

​@genghischan69 does every job I've ever had count as "real" coding?

[@gadgetboyplaysmc]

Wait really? I bought a Mac and was planning to do game dev at some point.@@genghischan69

[@richardbennett4365]

Atom via GitHub was also acquired by Microsoft when it purchased GitHub in 2018, six years ago. And, not surprisingly, Microsoft after first stating Atom development would continue, and it did, until it was halted by Microsoft in June 2022.

[@ismbks]

biggest pikachu face of my life

[@raphieexists9309]

We need to sunrise Atom.

[@aleksandarstevanovic5854]

YEEESSSSS!!! editor in 120 fps! exactly what i was missing all these years

[@rankarat]

Lol, people trying to make anything an advantage.

[@GetPsyched6]

​​@@Faizan29353most time coding is spent staring at the screen and then at stackoverflow. 1wpm increase is completely useless

[@boiimcfacto2364]

@@Faizan29353 Bro what exactly are you coding that WPM is a factor 💀 programming is limited by your intellectual capacity to think of solutions to problems, not by the number of functions you can write in a minute lol.

[@iWillAvert]

​@@boiimcfacto2364Sure, but take two equally intelligent developers, and the one who can type faster will be more productive. I will level with you though that in the real world, it may not actually make a huge difference since you're not banging out application after application.

[@querela92]

​@@boiimcfacto2364genetic algorithms ;-) I write functions without thinking as fast as I can and then test which of those gets me the nearest solution. Then I need to really quickly scroll through all my code and review which worked best, to start write many more functions. I need FPS...

[@kasper369]

Now the natural next step is to create another text editor in Zig

[@cherubin7th]

Cool a code editor that segfaults.

[@the_null_man]

​@@cherubin7th brother, we used to code in C and C++ for years already, and I mean you can segfault with Rust, too

[@ShawnThuris]

Zed would have been a perfect name for it...

[@Leo0718]

…and call it Rest. To keep the balance.

[@darkenlightmage]

@@cherubin7th Yes, because every single program written in C will segfault, and it's phisically impossible for a rust program to panic and commit seppuku.

[@dilcon]

Extensions will probably be based on wasm to allow maximum range of languages to be written in and not only rust. Remember them talking about it in some podcast

[@Luxalpa]

Sounds nice. I got really disappointed in Helix when they announced they'd use Scheme as plugin language instead of Wasm.

[@WiecejNoxiego]

@@Luxalpa they have good reasons for it and if I'm not mistaken the way they design plugins allows for multiple plugin backends.

[@themax2go]

now that(!) would be a huge step forward

[@Rudxain]

Why not LLVM IR?

[@livedreamsg]

I've been using it as my main code editor for a little over a week now. It's pretty good. Still missing some pretty critical things for me, though, like seeing what exactly I've changed (compared to the latest commit).

[@the_agent_z]

Zed is pretty great. The performance is way faster than vscode with almost instant diagnostics. Though it lacks features such as intuitive config menus, Extensions/Plugins support, Custom themes, Etc. But it does have support for most languages out of the box.

[@OfficialLegend]

The features it lacks it makes up in the speed

[@codewhiz2.0]

I have heard people talking how great Zed is I’m gonna try it out

[@masmeert]

It does have custom themes since a little while

[@ColorblindMonk]

@@OfficialLegend End of the day, though, features matter more than speed. Zed has a long road ahead before you can call it a vscode killer.

[@samilqs]

zed is faster precisely because it does not have any of those dependencies that you mentioned, such as the ability to add plugins or communication with github

[@jakethewoz]

When I used Atom, it made Visual Studio seem fast. Hard to believe the same people made a fast editor

[@vezquex]

Atom was actually way faster at the time than anyone thought JS could be.

[@SuperQuwertz]

They created Electron just for Atom. Now they leveled up and created their own GPU rendered framework in Rust. Pretty cool stuff

[@wombat7961]

Atom destroyed my macbook pro - i had to upgrade every part. Then i realized youtube was also destroying my mbp.

[@JohnHenryLiberty23]

@jakethewoz - you're a developer and you are surprised at a team of engineers that built something found ways to do it better? lol

[@AlexisDessard]

This video was supposed to make me migrate to Zed but it actually made me discover Cursor and switch instantly from VSC, thanks for helping me think less and earn more in less time 👌

[@GamingVlogBoxStudios]

I saw Cursor once and all the AI features needed more payment and it wasn't open source (I have an unhealthy obsession with opensourced code). Once I find a code editor like Cursor with free AI and open source with a VSCode styled UI I'll definitely switch.

[@tschorsch]

They basically took open source software and made it closed source. They should have at least had an open source base with closed pieces. I hate all of the lock-in.

[@airampg5031]

yikes

[@ReflexiaVoid]

The fact that it's only available for mac outweighs all of its advantages. Hopefully, I'll remember to check it out once it becomes available for the platforms I use.

[@assarlannerborn9342]

Bro saved the most important detail for last💀

[@squeed77]

you can compile it for the platforms you use

[@scben]

Another one of those neat looking code editors that will soon be forgotten

[@lasue7244]

Yup, unless any editor comes with most popular extensions at launch and get viral immediately. Otherwise it will die before it reaches to vscode competitor status

[@Hector-bj3ls]

@@lasue7244 I've been using it as my main editor for a while now. It's pretty good. It's still early days, but it's already better than vscode for 99% of tasks.

[@transatlant1c]

Agreed, so just use sublime. It’s basically the same speed, has been around forever and does everything this one does. Just claim the license fee as a work expense or tax expense and move on

[@randomcontrol]

Atom will never be forgotten 😢

[@Hector-bj3ls]

@@randomcontrol Zed is by the same people. Or so it says on their website.

[@ravinlimbu]

The performance and minimal design got me hooked. Would've definitely tried it if it was on windows.

[@azufendusgarendum6583]

It runs on Linux fwiw

[@FriskGamer1]

Windows 💀

[@_tr11]

​@@azufendusgarendum6583 ?

[@syedmohammadsannan964]

@@azufendusgarendum6583 It doesn't? It's macos only

[@XDarkGreyX]

Only for the rich and wannabe-rich broke folks

[@guest1754]

The memes per second ratio on videos like these is outstanding.

[@quintennn]

I've tried it and it works really well. It's indeed very minimal. One of the things I really liked was the "onboarding" you get to pick a theme, setup a few things but most importantly choose keyboard shortcuts. You can do intelliJ, vscode and other shortcuts. So you'll feel right at home using the same shortcuts. Missing features for me: Git, seeing your git changes visually, a diff, staging unstaging etc the basic like vscode had. Seeing your current branc name Stuff like git blame file icon (there are file icons atm but they are again super minimal an a bit too minimal for me, I want some more color so I can easily see what kind of file it is.) If they would add at least the above features, I will probably switch from vscode.

[@4RILDIGITAL]

Interesting take on the evolution of text editors and the role of AI. Zed presents a lot of potential. However, I agree with the limitations you pointed out such as its availability only on Mac OS, and the lack of extensibility.

[@IllllIIllllI]

I'm 100% sure this comment was made by chatGPT

[@ck-dl4to]

It gives out a reason you should buy a Mac. We don't care about that

[@FrankMakesGames]

This is not the only video that meme's "VS Code Killer" but until they support Windows and Linux it definitely will never be a VS Code killer. I think a lot of people just quit looking when they hear it's Mac only. Good thing you mentioned it at the end, that was a 10x move on your part!!!

[@taureon_]

i like how in the performance metrics, sublime text is also a very close 2nd or even first makes me happy about using it :^)

[@mileusna]

Currently Sublime is way more superior over Zed since it is stable product, but looks like Zed got some hype. Lets see what will happen.

[@drygordspellweaver8761]

I am extremely happy with Sublime text

[@wiintend07]

Been using Zed since it was a closed beta, I love how snappy it is. Full featured without the bloat, waiting for the Windows build!

[@LAKD]

it has the potential to be big. But there are too many bugs atm for me to actually replace my main editor

[@aff1743]

YES! I tried to use it, but it's annoying as hell with -- obtrusive infinite alert windows -- with "ESLINT error" and open output that does nothing and -- ESC does not close alert --, it's an inexcusable behavior for a production ready app for targeted to tech-savvy in 2024! I mean, it's fast, not laggy as VSC, some ready preset ready to go.

[@f0kes32]

Damn, i watched the full video only to know there's no extensions and mac only. Well played, fireship!

[@vim55k]

Zed is fast and pretty workable with typescript! Now I can dive in without waiting 10s or refusing in VScode. Our repo is large and I have to restart vscode frequently to just make it work

[@anuttamanand150]

I used it. Since I am working in Java, it doesn't have much support but it's lightning fast. And do use Warp terminal by same company

[@getdonek]

They released Extension support right after you published this, ZED IDE is 🔥

[@MrA6060]

text editor not IDE 🤡

[@getdonek]

Soon to be IDE @@MrA6060

[@tschorsch]

​@@MrA6060 They're not that much different anymore.

[@jadizadi7600]

@@MrA6060 there is no diffrence between IDE and text editor now only if you're talking about Windows Notepad as text editor

[@dekaaizer2550]

So when will the Helix-editor video dropping? Maybe not as loud of a fan base but a steady growing one. 28k github stars on the repo already.

[@tears_falling]

+1 for helix

[@FlanPoirot]

helix is my goto lately, have been using it non stop for the last 2 months and still haven't found a reason to go back to my fully configured nvim setup, it's just that comfy, I don't miss anything (besides DAP but that's not THAT big of a deal tbh)

[@filiprechtorik4938]

+10000 for helix

[@darshankumawat1764]

Been over 8 months since I've started using it. Never looked back.

[@ShawnThuris]

I was on nvim for a couple of years until I discovered Helix -- now I've installed it on all my ssh machines (even on ARM).

[@MildManneredBarbarian]

Tried it out today and it's neat. Copilot integration is quick and note intuitive than my lunarcim setup. Shame some basic stuff is broke, like the eslint output window bot opening when you get an error, which is on every keystroke sometimes.

[@Serizon_]

when fireship uploads , i feel happy , i am watching his previous videos for getting knowledge

[@joris7571]

"Nothing lasts forever" Contemplate my perfect nvim setup

[@GreyDeathVaccine]

Emacs is still here, 47 years and still kicking ass 🙂

[@x3voo]

if it can view very large text files and has a hex editor, im sold

[@PaulSpades]

A HEX editor? Look at this guy, demanding a real, useful, text editor feature from a text editor. Go to bed, Grandpa! The children want 20 icon packs for the sidebar and microsoft ads.

[@mileusna]

It can’t. I have treid to open 500K or 2M text files and no luck. They still got lots of work to do.

[@johnbrooks7350]

I learned on Atom and loved teletype for working on school projects together.

[@saccobello6516]

With that image of the canyon in southern Brazil, you made me emotional for various reasons.

[@drolaticdemiurge1137]

that fucking place just goes so hard i stg

[@landlubbber]

Unsurprising that none of the performance metrics compare to Vim or Neovim since any other editor would get smoked by either of them

[@mekafinchi]

notepad++ remains my main editor, I've never really needed more

[@steve-adams]

I legitimately like Zed. I recently found the Arc browser and almost accidentally switched to it. After years of using Safari (mostly for energy efficiency on my laptop), jumping into Arc felt very natural. I think it took maybe an hour of test driving to feel confident making a switch. I never looked back. Zed was exactly the same. Everything is clean, trim, snappy, and mostly does exactly what I need without fluff. I can't wait to see where it goes. I'd like to make a full switch, but the lack of extensions is preventing it so far. We'll get there, though.

[@jarrodhroberson]

Sublime Text still does more than what i need for a text editor. For actual coding Jetbrains can not be beat.

[@LyallvanderLinde]

JB and all their IDE products is just memory hogs.

[@rhone733]

@@LyallvanderLinde Can't argue with that assessment. When I switch to linux only development I wanted something that felt similar to VS 2008. CLion fit the bill. I'll keep using it until I get around to writing my own editor.

[@ir8293]

Meanwhile the latest Sublime Text has been released today (Dev build) and it’s running circles around Zed. Feature and speed wise.

[@Ratchetrene]

I mean how long has sublime been around? tf kinda comparison is that lmao

[@kaan5780]

Zed sucks. Sorry, but editors without multi platform support by default just sucks. Late support = less unified experience. I don't think their future Linux and Windows builds will have same features and performance as macOS. Also without extensibility you cannot gain market share from your biggest competitor, VSCode. They just focused on some second order stuff but not actual features. I don't think the plugin support will be rich as VS Code unless they don't have multi platform support. Devs thougth their product will be popular with macOS only support. Congrats you created another "VS Code killer" that will be forgotten with in couple months.

[@pandres95]

Just a friendly reminder that virtually every single modern editor began working on macOS only. And yes! This includes your so much beloved VSCode.

[@BGraves]

This video is an ad. It does the same thing as Cursor

[@Civilization1]

​@@pandres95 Ahh yes the Microsoft product originally only ran on its competitors OS. Totally believable

[@BGraves]

​@@pandres95citr your source

[@teaser6089]

They basically made a Code editor with AI features but forgot about all the fucking features that made VS code as popular as it is. This is a problem almost all of these AI bro startups have, they check all the buzzword checkboxes but forget about the actual product...

[@mkvalor]

The final image of this video is an amazing reference.

[@Muzzino]

It's fantastically fast but I still have to keep VScode and JetBrains on standby for specific plugins and refactoring features. Zed has been my primary editor for a couple weeks now and I don't want to go back to the slugs

[@eparizzi]

As a +15 year software engineer myself, I don't understand all this focus on speed. If your work productivity depends on a few milliseconds of difference in inserting characters into your editor, I really wouldn't want to be you. Good software devs are not measured by their code writing speed.

[@hanniffydinn6019]

Are you deaf? It needs the speed for AI integration! 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[@meltygear5955]

I like how the benchmarks omit Neovim

[@ristomatti]

...and Helix.

[@natnial1]

@@silaspy-ff2neblazingly fast

[@julienlecoq3539]

@@silaspy-ff2nedoes it takes into account the startup time of your terminal? I doubt, and if it does not, it’s not really fair saying it takes 35ms

[@radiantveggies9348]

​@@julienlecoq3539wrong

[@belalmuflih5116]

You had me on "Hi mom", sorry for your loss but am happy you haven't forgot her. still the best easter eggs out there

[@quintencabo]

I hope they also have a feature where you can connect it to your own llm

[@soiree7833]

still gonna use emacs

[@ethanknifsend9775]

I think I’m gonna check out Adobe Dreamweaver

[@AseshShrestha]

I am in love with this IDE. It's so fast and lightweight.

[@razorree]

good IDEs were long time ago, Turbo Pascal, Turbo C 2.0, Borland C++ 3.1 (build with Turbo Vision), later MS Visual Studio, Eclipse etc. ...

[@aproxy7263]

By the time its available on Linux and Windows, VS Code will already have the main features of Zed.

[@garretmh]

The only feature Zed has now that VS Code doesn’t is not running on Electron so I’m not so sure.

[@MI08SK]

You can't make an electron app faster than a propper native one

[@blocksource4192]

@@MI08SK this is why svelte somehow wrote javascript code that's faster than native javascript functions. But I get what you mean

[@omarsh82]

This is old news it was out on Mac os last year I thought you were gonna make a video about Z being released on windows or lyrics that's 4 minutes of my life I'm never getting back thank you sir.

[@Indently]

I've always wanted to code at 3wpm at 120fps!

[@eduardornh]

The image of the "plateau" is from Fortaleza national park in southern Brazil.

[@Filaxsan]

Keep it crazy, Jeff, keep it crazy. All the best, brother 💪

[@maciejbratosiewicz7453]

Just tried it, it's amazing 10/10. Great design and finally I don't have 10k buttons and functions I don't need nor understand like in VS code.

[@nesimtunc]

Except slow launching (like Rust compiling time) for me on Apple M1, rest is almost perfect. I like it. Would be nice to have auto theme selection based on system theme which is also automated base on day time.

[@stoomkracht]

Hence, launch not measured in the comparison graphis in the video xD Cherry picked as always.

[@boopumer]

Seeing the Hi Mom made me remember, hope you are doing well @Fireship ...

[@alidp86]

Nice Pulp Fiction reference there 👍 0:22

[@Kabodanki]

Talking about AGI and the threat of it, it the best way for them to keep attention

[@weeb3277]

I need a copilot but for writing PRs

[@williamdes]

Well, I run it on Linux Debian 12. Support is ongoing by great devs on their free time. For now It displays and most buttons crash the interface. Each day there is less bugs.

[@Drokkstar_]

That outro music always kicks off a Barry White ear-worm. ("My first, my last, my everything...") - You're welcome. ;)

[@thatpersonwithamlpiconwhos2861]

Awesome, this IDE looks cool, ill check it out Mac only💀

[@Pocketkid2]

My roommate loves Zed, but he uses Mac only, I use all three (Mac, Windows, and Linux) interchangeably and so I am going to continue to use VS code until Zed comes out on those platforms

[@fchild]

“Not extensible” should be the first statement in this video and probably the last.

[@livedreamsg]

They released extensions yesterday.

[@xc6013]

i love atom, i still use it sometimes for old times sake:)

[@lunarcdr3083]

Can't wait when the Marsellus Editor comes out.

[@same1lo]

I have build Zed for Windows and this thing took 13 min to compile what a fast compiler

[@The_Nova_Glow]

I always look for the "Hi Mom" easter eggs. I love that your mom watches all of your videos.

[@TheNitramlxl]

It's like sublime text with a pre-installed AI package, running only on macos and without package control - am I missing something?

[@RCHFULLSTACK]

There will probably be more price pressure on applications in the future, which means that increasingly faster ways of coding are required. When everyone can develop pro, low no-coding. So there will also be more choice for companies and users.

[@alpuhagame]

I remember how everyone complained at how IntelliJ was slow and eats a lot of RAM compared to VSCode. Back then VSCode was new, fast & cool, even though it had quite a bit of issues. I even switched to it later because some plugin or the editor itself introduced editing files remotely over SSH, the feature which I use massively because I don't have to remote control the company's device (usually a MacBook), when I can just edit files on it from Windows PC. Now, the question is... would we see the history repeat itself?

[@eduardjsx]

As of yesterday, 21st of February, they have officially released support for extensions.

[@myeloon]

Looks most similar to sublime text to me. Sublime is also fast, but has been around for a while and has many packages, I've always loved it since i first used it about 10 years ago. Don't know about AI though, maybe there's a plugin for that

[@jerrygreenest]

I really liked Zed on macOS, now I really want it on Windows (my main machine)

[@zstrizzel]

"it's not a motorcycle baby, it's a chopper"

[@rationalityfirst]

I feel you. Before Neovim, I thought the same.

[@nshad03]

What mono font is used in the IDE, you can see it clearly around 3:05

[@attilao]

This video should have started by listing the supported platforms.

[@parnabsanyal5750]

Anyone used Brackets? It had(or still has) a built-in server. I don't remember any other editor doing this at that time.

[@HansBaier]

The helix editor is also cool

[@WiquoPiobn]

It might turn out to be quite large. However, there are currently too many bugs for me to switch my primary editor.

[@owenwexler7214]

Three problems I had: 1. No dark high contrast theme 2. Lots of key VSCode shortcuts I need not available 3. No visible positive impact on battery life, very important to me as a frequent traveler

[@techarchsefa]

i am using cursor ai IDE with ai features. i can use also vscode extension as well

[@tedmoyses2942]

Conversation driven development might.... Just be the way we "code" in the future. Reasoning about a design, edge cases, tradeoffs and implementation details with a trained expert to guide you and perhaps fill in the gaps could be a highly productive way to work. Obviously highly contingent on the "highly trained expert" bit actually working and not madly hallucinating and ad libbing...

[@VarunGupta3009]

I planned on switching to Zed, but noped out as soon as I heard it wasn't extensible... yet. Also I don't use macOS for development XD.

[@roudikk]

What about Lapce? You should check it out.. It's also insanely fast and built in rust. Would love a comparison

[@setokibah4476]

Well that's the push I needed, off to the Infantry we ride!

[@XX-ri1me]

Zed is DOA baby without plugins. Perhaps it can be compatible with VSCode as an option next to Rust plugins?

[@Greenmarty]

It would be nice to have finished Linux 🐧 or Windows 🪟 versions of Zed .

[@BraxtonMeyer]

0:30. Friendly reminder that Emacs has always been cool.

[@SamyarBorder]

i think we need a good visual code editor for frontend, recently i have tried Godot and i felt like what about a code editor just like Godot interface for React? maybe if i have time i will give it a try

[@Mosshugallwalls]

What I presume is that coding will be replaced by ai but that would help programmers to move on the next floor of the building. While the ground floor will be managed by ai the 1st floor will be us experimenting on stuff like quantum computers

[@steveaguay]

Really happy to see more competition and glad Microsoft is not alone there. Doesn't fit my use cases yet and it's always gonna be hard to ripe neovim from me as a 8 year vim vet.

[@shr4pnel]

jetbrains webstorm will forever be my special angel.

[@AliasA1]

"It hasn't actually replaced any programmers." It has though. Literally the VFX studio I work at just justified letting a pipeline dev go in part because all the small temporary tools they wrote to do tasks and handle data was not something the artists did themselves with chatgpt.

[@TheDiscoMole]

3:37 tell me about this huge L at the start homie

[@okbrown]

Gave this a go for a few days, didn't enjoy the experience much. Muscle memory was hard to shift from VSCode and Webstorm. It was like forcing myself to use Arc... Just didn't feel right 😂

[@chizhang9135]

It support extension yesterday

[@Hoggins]

Lets go. AI Fireship voice in this video

[@ilearncode7365]

“Not extensible”. Does that mean i cant have syntax highlitghing for things like prisma, graphql, etc? Or is that something else? In VS Code, i use “extensions” for syntaxt highlighting of different filetypes

[@MrSamkots]

I wonder how/if it will affect the people writing accelerate code(like deep learning) and running it on GPU while zed is running