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What are some reasons to pick Sublime Text over Zed for someone not familiar with either?

kzalesak 11d ago
Sublime text is what notepad++ wished to be. There are many tasks that do not require a full IDE, not even vscode and sublime just works. Always, consistently, reliably works, is fast and a joy to use.
- boundless88 11d ago
  If you're using AI to write code, IDE features don't really seem that important anymore.
- Krssst 11d ago
  Also, LSP can turn Sublime Text into almost an IDE (but much more performant).
  - dartharva 11d ago
    Sublime Text's implementation of LSP is the buggiest and clunkiest I have used in a text editor
- dartharva 11d ago
  >Sublime text is what notepad++ wished to be. Nonsense statement, Notepad++ has always been superior in every metric
  - bigstrat2003 11d ago
    Objectively, Notepad++ is inferior at cross-platform support. Subjectively, I don't like that the creator of Notepad++ uses the software itself as a platform for his politics. In either case, I prefer Sublime.
mcrk 11d ago
If you need to ask this question, that means there is no difference for you. Just choose one and commit.
dsego 11d ago
Zed pretty much copied everything over from Sublime, so it's pretty much on par. Sublime was one of the first editors to have an uncluttered UI without toolbars, but with advanced features, like multi-cursor editing and the command palette. As a long time sublime users, it still feels superior as it gets lots of small details right, like for example when I do Cmd+P to search for files and scroll through the files it will show a preview, Zed doesn't show a preview until you actually select the file.
- sleepybrett 11d ago
  cough textmate
  - chao- 11d ago
    Technically correct. However, for the majority of humans, their first encounter with these features and behaviors could never be TextMate, and instead would be Sublime Text. TextMate never growing to be cross-platform is a major reason for Sublime Text's early growth.
  - piva00 11d ago
    Yup, I used TextMate a lot back in the early 2000s, and Sublime from around 2010 and bought a license maybe a year later. To this day I always install Sublime on my new machines, it's the perfect text editor for my needs: fast and snappy, buffers are persistent so I can use as a scratch pad without having to save files, can customise with plugins if needed, the command palette gives quite a bit of power user features. I mostly use it as a scratch pad nowadays, like if I'm debugging something, collecting a bunch of text from different places to reference quickly, nothing too advanced (nor directly related to coding) and is still one of the most satisfying programs to use on my day-to-day. It's basically always open, just waiting for a new buffer.
  - cosmic_cheese 11d ago
    I use Sublime mostly these days but I still have a soft spot for TextMate. Sublime is the closest that exists to its spiritual successor, but it’s missing the “macness” that TextMate brought back in the day, which is the cost of being a cross-platform app I suppose.
leecommamichael 11d ago
For me? I already have Sublime Text installed, it works great, and has never not worked great.
- kunley 11d ago
  Ditto
open_ 11d ago
Sublime Text is not aligned with an 'any minute now' pivot to enshittification. And whatever it does, it does better than Zed, debatably.
bpev 11d ago
Don't have any metrics or anything, but I use both, and anecdotally, I feel like Sublime is snappier and gives me better battery life.
bigstrat2003 11d ago
Sublime Text doesn't automatically download and run language servers without your consent. Zed does, and last I looked there's no way to turn that behavior off (the devs said it's an intentional decision to make things easier for users). I am personally of the opinion that it isn't acceptable for software to start pulling in other software without my consent, so I avoid Zed like the plague. The Gram fork of Zed is pretty good, though.
audunw 11d ago
I’m using Zed, but I honestly can’t recommend it to anyone yet. They claim 1.0 but in reality it’s still beta software. It is fundamentally broken in how it deals with the file system so the project panel and git panel can easily miss changes, and it’s still not clear if they’ll even address it. At least it seems the next release might fix the bug where the git panel will jump to a different repo when you click on a file in it. They should seriously have fixed basic stuff like that before releasing 1.0. But they got in lots of cosmetic changes to the markdown viewer.. they really need to consider their priorities
gwking 11d ago
I started using Zed daily about 6 months ago after 10 years of VS Code. VS Code was having idiotic regressions (like randomly inserting a copy of the final line of a file on save) while they were busy pumping out AI features. Turns out, Zed is also busy pumping out AI features and the code editing experience is degrading. I'm actively shopping for a replacement.

Sublime text is what notepad++ wished to be. There are many tasks that do not require a full IDE, not even vscode and sublime just works. Always, consistently, reliably works, is fast and a joy to use.

boundless88 11d ago
If you're using AI to write code, IDE features don't really seem that important anymore.
Krssst 11d ago
Also, LSP can turn Sublime Text into almost an IDE (but much more performant).
- dartharva 11d ago
  Sublime Text's implementation of LSP is the buggiest and clunkiest I have used in a text editor
dartharva 11d ago
>Sublime text is what notepad++ wished to be. Nonsense statement, Notepad++ has always been superior in every metric
- bigstrat2003 11d ago
  Objectively, Notepad++ is inferior at cross-platform support. Subjectively, I don't like that the creator of Notepad++ uses the software itself as a platform for his politics. In either case, I prefer Sublime.

mcrk 11d ago

If you need to ask this question, that means there is no difference for you. Just choose one and commit.

dsego 11d ago

Zed pretty much copied everything over from Sublime, so it's pretty much on par. Sublime was one of the first editors to have an uncluttered UI without toolbars, but with advanced features, like multi-cursor editing and the command palette. As a long time sublime users, it still feels superior as it gets lots of small details right, like for example when I do Cmd+P to search for files and scroll through the files it will show a preview, Zed doesn't show a preview until you actually select the file.

sleepybrett 11d ago
cough textmate
- chao- 11d ago
  Technically correct. However, for the majority of humans, their first encounter with these features and behaviors could never be TextMate, and instead would be Sublime Text. TextMate never growing to be cross-platform is a major reason for Sublime Text's early growth.
- piva00 11d ago
  Yup, I used TextMate a lot back in the early 2000s, and Sublime from around 2010 and bought a license maybe a year later. To this day I always install Sublime on my new machines, it's the perfect text editor for my needs: fast and snappy, buffers are persistent so I can use as a scratch pad without having to save files, can customise with plugins if needed, the command palette gives quite a bit of power user features. I mostly use it as a scratch pad nowadays, like if I'm debugging something, collecting a bunch of text from different places to reference quickly, nothing too advanced (nor directly related to coding) and is still one of the most satisfying programs to use on my day-to-day. It's basically always open, just waiting for a new buffer.
- cosmic_cheese 11d ago
  I use Sublime mostly these days but I still have a soft spot for TextMate. Sublime is the closest that exists to its spiritual successor, but it’s missing the “macness” that TextMate brought back in the day, which is the cost of being a cross-platform app I suppose.

leecommamichael 11d ago

For me? I already have Sublime Text installed, it works great, and has never not worked great.

kunley 11d ago
Ditto

open_ 11d ago

Sublime Text is not aligned with an 'any minute now' pivot to enshittification. And whatever it does, it does better than Zed, debatably.

bpev 11d ago

Don't have any metrics or anything, but I use both, and anecdotally, I feel like Sublime is snappier and gives me better battery life.

bigstrat2003 11d ago

Sublime Text doesn't automatically download and run language servers without your consent. Zed does, and last I looked there's no way to turn that behavior off (the devs said it's an intentional decision to make things easier for users). I am personally of the opinion that it isn't acceptable for software to start pulling in other software without my consent, so I avoid Zed like the plague. The Gram fork of Zed is pretty good, though.

audunw 11d ago

I’m using Zed, but I honestly can’t recommend it to anyone yet. They claim 1.0 but in reality it’s still beta software. It is fundamentally broken in how it deals with the file system so the project panel and git panel can easily miss changes, and it’s still not clear if they’ll even address it. At least it seems the next release might fix the bug where the git panel will jump to a different repo when you click on a file in it. They should seriously have fixed basic stuff like that before releasing 1.0. But they got in lots of cosmetic changes to the markdown viewer.. they really need to consider their priorities

gwking 11d ago

I started using Zed daily about 6 months ago after 10 years of VS Code. VS Code was having idiotic regressions (like randomly inserting a copy of the final line of a file on save) while they were busy pumping out AI features. Turns out, Zed is also busy pumping out AI features and the code editing experience is degrading. I'm actively shopping for a replacement.