4 ms·

You know the AI craze is real when adding chat gpt-4 to a text editor is higher priority than Linux and/or Windows support

by Zekio 3y ago

miohtama 3y ago
It’s likely that Zed does not want users, or wants specific kind of users as this stage of their company maturity. Mac developer is a proxy for the user type Zed is probably aiming to sell service: Western, wealthy, senior. Whileas Windows users are everyone and their uncle. Scaling to large userbase does not make sense if they are not going to pay for your product.
- kristopolous 3y ago
  I'm just sour about lack of Linux support, it's like I'm in 1998 again except now instead of Microsoft Windows ignoring us it's Apple macOS. A WINE like project for macOS software would be great
  - bastawhiz 3y ago
    Well it's open source now, so pull requests welcome.
    - alabhyajindal 3y ago
      This assumes that everyone wanting to use Zed is proficient in Rust and willing to contribute.
  - mixmastamyk 3y ago
    Because if there's one thing Linux needs is a good text editor! :-D
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - btdmaster 3y ago
    > A Wine-like project for macOS software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darling_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darling_(software) https://github.com/darlinghq/darling https://github.com/darlinghq/darling https://darlinghq.org https://darlinghq.org
  - Cu3PO42 3y ago
    There is! It's called Darling [1]. Unfortunately, its GUI support is experimental and still very limited, so you won't be able to run Zed right now, but I still think the project is very cool. [1] https://www.darlinghq.org/ https://www.darlinghq.org/
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
aseipp 3y ago
Adding Copilot or GPT-4 autocomplete support to an editor is not hard. You can find 100 different projects on GitHub that do this which are all just calling OpenAI. It is vastly different in scope and design than porting native applications.
haswell 3y ago
In product management parlance, this is low hanging fruit. Easy to implement and capitalizes on something the market is highly interested in at the moment. Given the concentration of developers who use Macs, and the accelerating interest in LLM-assisted coding, this makes a lot of sense to me. And while it may be true that AI is a craze, this is also a very real and useful feature grounded in a solid use case that has high impact on its users unlike some of the crazes of the past that were purely built on hype.
- chme 3y ago
  Are really that many developers using Macs? Maybe I am in a different bubble/country, but most professional developers and hobbyist hackers I know have either ThinkPads or Framework laptops running Linux or sometimes Windows, if they have to.
  - haswell 3y ago
    33% according to the latest Stack Overflow developer survey. A healthy enough number to focus on that user base. I do think there are bubbles though. Macs are popular in SV, and there’s a very healthy portion of the developer community focused on this user base.
    - chme 3y ago
      This is a pretty useless poll when trying to compare MacOS, Windows and Linux usage, because they split Linux up into different distributions. Because adding all numbers up, you get >100%, I suppose multiple-choice were allowed, which doesn't even allow adding all Linux-like operating systems together. So not really a good Argument that MacOS is used more... https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023 https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023
      - haswell 3y ago
        If you look around the web, most attempts to answer this market share question land in roughly the same ballpark. The argument is not that macOS is used more. The argument is that macOS is prevalent enough that it makes sense to focus on it as a market.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
skrebbel 3y ago
I’m a Windows user so I was sad about this but I think their reason for doing it like this makes a lot of sense. I’d do the same in their shoes, I think. The explain it in the 6th question on https://zed.dev/faq https://zed.dev/faq
impulser_ 3y ago
You never built a product if this is your honest take. You should have a focus when you first build a product. You shouldn't be holding up your product progress because you don't support every platform. This is the reason why you see a lot of apps support iOS before they release an Android app. It better to build a good working app for one platform than to not build one at all because you are spending all your time supporting as many platform as possible.

You know the AI craze is real when adding chat gpt-4 to a text editor is higher priority than Linux and/or Windows support

by Zekio 3y ago

You know the AI craze is real when adding chat gpt-4 to a text editor is higher priority than Linux and/or Windows support

miohtama 3y ago

It’s likely that Zed does not want users, or wants specific kind of users as this stage of their company maturity. Mac developer is a proxy for the user type Zed is probably aiming to sell service: Western, wealthy, senior. Whileas Windows users are everyone and their uncle. Scaling to large userbase does not make sense if they are not going to pay for your product.

kristopolous 3y ago
I'm just sour about lack of Linux support, it's like I'm in 1998 again except now instead of Microsoft Windows ignoring us it's Apple macOS. A WINE like project for macOS software would be great
- bastawhiz 3y ago
  Well it's open source now, so pull requests welcome.
  - alabhyajindal 3y ago
    This assumes that everyone wanting to use Zed is proficient in Rust and willing to contribute.
- mixmastamyk 3y ago
  Because if there's one thing Linux needs is a good text editor! :-D
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- btdmaster 3y ago
  > A Wine-like project for macOS software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darling_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darling_(software) https://github.com/darlinghq/darling https://github.com/darlinghq/darling https://darlinghq.org https://darlinghq.org
- Cu3PO42 3y ago
  There is! It's called Darling [1]. Unfortunately, its GUI support is experimental and still very limited, so you won't be able to run Zed right now, but I still think the project is very cool. [1] https://www.darlinghq.org/ https://www.darlinghq.org/
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

aseipp 3y ago

Adding Copilot or GPT-4 autocomplete support to an editor is not hard. You can find 100 different projects on GitHub that do this which are all just calling OpenAI. It is vastly different in scope and design than porting native applications.

haswell 3y ago

In product management parlance, this is low hanging fruit. Easy to implement and capitalizes on something the market is highly interested in at the moment. Given the concentration of developers who use Macs, and the accelerating interest in LLM-assisted coding, this makes a lot of sense to me. And while it may be true that AI is a craze, this is also a very real and useful feature grounded in a solid use case that has high impact on its users unlike some of the crazes of the past that were purely built on hype.

chme 3y ago
Are really that many developers using Macs? Maybe I am in a different bubble/country, but most professional developers and hobbyist hackers I know have either ThinkPads or Framework laptops running Linux or sometimes Windows, if they have to.
- haswell 3y ago
  33% according to the latest Stack Overflow developer survey. A healthy enough number to focus on that user base. I do think there are bubbles though. Macs are popular in SV, and there’s a very healthy portion of the developer community focused on this user base.
  - chme 3y ago
    This is a pretty useless poll when trying to compare MacOS, Windows and Linux usage, because they split Linux up into different distributions. Because adding all numbers up, you get >100%, I suppose multiple-choice were allowed, which doesn't even allow adding all Linux-like operating systems together. So not really a good Argument that MacOS is used more... https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023 https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023
    - haswell 3y ago
      If you look around the web, most attempts to answer this market share question land in roughly the same ballpark. The argument is not that macOS is used more. The argument is that macOS is prevalent enough that it makes sense to focus on it as a market.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

skrebbel 3y ago

I’m a Windows user so I was sad about this but I think their reason for doing it like this makes a lot of sense. I’d do the same in their shoes, I think. The explain it in the 6th question on https://zed.dev/faq https://zed.dev/faq

impulser_ 3y ago

You never built a product if this is your honest take. You should have a focus when you first build a product. You shouldn't be holding up your product progress because you don't support every platform. This is the reason why you see a lot of apps support iOS before they release an Android app. It better to build a good working app for one platform than to not build one at all because you are spending all your time supporting as many platform as possible.