NotVibesCoded
Developer Tools

Zed

A next-generation code editor built for high-performance collaboration.

Published

What it does

Why it matters

Editors had settled into a comfortable Electron monoculture — until Zed showed what "native" still buys you: instant startup, 120fps scrolling, and collaboration where two cursors in one file just works. It's a reminder that performance is a feature users feel in their hands.

Engineering notes

  • Rust + GPU rendering. Every frame is budgeted; the editor is architected so the UI thread never waits on the world.
  • CRDT collaboration. Multiplayer editing built on conflict-free replicated data types — the same class of algorithm behind Google Docs, done peer-to-peer.
  • AI as a panel, not a takeover. Agent integration is present but the editor remains fast and predictable with it off.

Limitations

  • The extension ecosystem is far smaller than VS Code's — check your must-have plugins first.
  • Linux and Windows builds arrived after macOS; some platform rough edges remain.

Related projects

Developer Tools

Ruff

An extremely fast Python linter and code formatter, written in Rust.

Ruff collapses Flake8, pylint's common rules, isort, and Black into one tool that runs in milliseconds. It proved that developer-experience speed is a feature, not a luxury.

RustPython
Developer Tools

uv

An extremely fast Python package and project manager, written in Rust.

uv replaces pip, pip-tools, pipx, poetry, pyenv, and virtualenv with a single binary that resolves and installs Python dependencies 10–100x faster. It's the rare tool that deletes an entire category of workflow friction.

RustPython
Developer Tools

Aider

AI pair programming in your terminal — open source.

Aider is the open-source terminal chatbot for code: pair it with any frontier model, point it at your git repo, and it edits files with proper diffs and commit messages. The hacker's choice for agentic coding.

Python

Canonical URL: https://notvibescoded.com/projects/zed