Ask HN: Zed Instead of Cursor?
I figured I'd experiment with Cursor in January, and so have spent 4 months with that. I figured I'd try a different one now. I'm going to give Zed a run for a few months.
Cursor was decent. The agent stuff was helpful somedays, and there were a couple of "what the heck are you doing??" But overall, net positive. I wish the transition between just ask and agent was more fluid. I wish it were in the markdown/prompt itself, instead of a separate toggle button. In agent mode, it was way too eager to rewrite my stuff when I just had a question. And then I find myself forgetting I was in ask mode, and having to flip the mode just to say "yeah, can you write code for what I just asked". VSCode was full of features of course, but it also feels like a backpack that first time backpackers pack: too weighted down with too many things.
So far, Zed feels spartan and lean, almost too much the other way. What I wouldn't give for an actual settings dialog/form instead of having to dig through and edit json files. I've noticed more needs for reboots to get the communication with the agent working again. But it is snappy.