Zed.dev, an editor I use to build software, released their Linux version a few months ago. I vividly recall seeing the announcement on Hacker News. The timing was perfect, as I had just ordered my first non-Mac laptop and decided to venture into the Linux world after 15 years of exclusively using Apple products.

However, the comments section of the announcement thread told a different story. People began comparing Zed to VS Code, IntelliJ, and other IDEs that have been in the market far longer. It saddened me to see such comparisons. Instead of congratulating the team on reaching their first milestone, critics were demanding to know why they hadn’t already achieved milestones two and three.

It’s important to remember that most software is a work in progress. Depending on the team’s decisions, software evolves almost daily. New features are added, new bugs are introduced, existing bugs are resolved, and there’s always something fresh being incorporated into the codebase as long as people remain motivated to improve the product. Zed made their IDE open-source, and it’s been inspiring to see numerous community members contribute to enhancing the software. From what I’ve read, it’s significantly improved since the first public version that shipped just a few weeks ago.

Will Zed have all the features that IntelliJ or Visual Studio Code boast? I don’t think so, nor does it need to. I’m quite satisfied with the current state of the software. They have a happy and willing-to-pay customer in me.