Zed code editor looks more interesting, plus it is modern, open-source, and actively developed
(Although I think the program still needs a bit of time to smooth out the edges, plus not everyone may be a fan of the AI and collaborative features, which get a lot of care in the GUI. You can turn all of it off, but still.)
But I don't like the implication that Nova is abandoned or less modern compared to Zed. Nova is arguably one of the sexiest apps on the Mac right now – it looks gorgeous and it's far more "Mac-assed" than any of Apple's software, for starters. And in terms of development / maintenance, it should be in VERY good hands at Panic.
You're 100% right on open-source vs closed-source, though.
Really? Looking at the screenshots from the front page it looks like a custom GUI framework and doesn't even look like a native macOS app, even the folder icons in the file tree are wrong. The only way I can tell it's a macOS app is by the traffic lights on the top left.
But it gets better when clicking around the app – all the different settings, modal sheets and sidebars feel very much like home.
The filetree icons are… a choice, yes. They kind of lean more into the "smooth skeumorphic squircle" look which is normally applied to apps, NOT files and folders. I'm guessing they didn't want to and/or weren't allowed to use the plain icons that Xcode does.
Then people are surprised many devs rather target enterprise customers with "call me" for sales.