Today I decided to change things up a little.
I’ve been a huge fan of VSCodium for quite a while now and it’s served me incredibly well. I’ve never really had any major issues with it, and it’s been my editor of choice for years. That said, it still carries the Microsoft lineage. I know, I know.
In fact, I don’t use any Microsoft products on a daily basis anymore. Well, apart from a Windows 11 Pro VM that work insists I keep around for one specific customer who requires PowerShell development. Even then, I mostly treat it like a remote endpoint, connecting from my Linux desktop via VSCodium’s SSH integration so I can edit and test everything from an environment I actually enjoy using.
I’ve looked at Zed a few times in the past, but my impression was always that it was a bit… “meh”. Interesting, plenty of potential, but not quite ready for me to commit any serious time to it.
Today, though, I decided to give it another proper shot.
I’ve spent the day using it in anger: connecting to remote systems, integrating it with Codex, hunting down extensions that fit my workflow, adding language support, and—most importantly—switching it over to the Tokyo Night theme.
I have to admit, I’m pretty impressed.
It’s fast, feels responsive, and the overall experience is much more polished than I remember. There are still things I miss from VSCodium, and I’m certainly not uninstalling it any time soon, but Zed has earned a place in my daily toolkit for now.
The plan is simple: I’ll keep using Zed until it gives me a reason not to. So far, it hasn’t.