January 5, 2026
Edit wars: Zed vs VSCode
I switched from VSCode to Zed
Dev dumps VS Code for Zed after AI overload — comments go nuclear
TLDR: A veteran coder quit VS Code for Zed after frustrated battles with always‑on AI features and sluggishness. The community split fast: some cheer the speed and simplicity, others say workplaces and chip toolchains keep them locked to VS Code, while Zed’s own quirks sparked fresh debate.
A longtime user says they’ve finally ditched Microsoft’s popular code editor VS Code for the newer, lightweight Zed — and the comments section turned into a full-on editor cage match. The tipping point? AI everywhere. After more pop‑ups and prompts from GitHub’s Copilot and a growing list of settings to turn it off, the author says VS Code felt slower, buggier, and crash‑y. Zed, by contrast, is described as fast, clean, and drama‑free, with a familiar look and smoother feel — aside from some setup hiccups for Python.
The crowd? Divided and loud. One camp cheers, calling VS Code’s AI push “too much” and piling on with long‑running gripes like “CSS highlighting has been broken for years.” Another camp says: nice dream, but you can’t leave — big companies and chip makers have built their tools around VS Code, so everyone’s stuck. Even Zed fans admit it’s not flawless: one user blames Zed’s AI helper for hogging CPU and causing a crash; another says Zed’s fonts look rough on certain screens.
The vibe is pure tech soap opera: freedom from bloat vs locked‑in for life, with memes about “Clippy 2.0” and users joking they’ll escape VS Code right after they escape their employer’s toolchain. Pass the popcorn.
Key Points
- •The author switched from VSCode to Zed in December due to intrusive AI features and perceived stability/performance issues in VSCode.
- •Zed offers a familiar UI and keybindings to VSCode but lacks an open editors sidebar, encouraging navigation via file search (Cmd+P).
- •Zed felt faster and more stable over two weeks of use; Go worked out-of-the-box while Python required additional setup.
- •Zed relies on Python language servers and uses Basedpyright by default, which initially showed stricter type-checking errors.
- •Pylance, built by Microsoft on Pyright, is widely used but not open source and cannot be used outside VSCode.