Best of VSCode — October 2025

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    Video
    Avatar of gamefromscratchGamefromscratch·25w

    Zed - The 'Visual Studio Code Killer' - Now on Windows!

    Zed, a performance-focused code editor built in Rust, is now available on Windows after being Mac and Linux exclusive. The editor emphasizes speed through GPU acceleration and multi-core CPU usage, featuring instant startup times and responsive UI. It includes AI integration with support for multiple providers (Gemini, Copilot), built-in debugging, git integration, real-time collaboration, and an extension system. While the Windows port is functional, some features like language servers may require additional setup compared to the more mature Mac and Linux versions.

  2. 2
    Article
    Avatar of hnHacker News·26w

    microsoft/amplifier

    Microsoft released Amplifier, an experimental development environment that enhances AI coding assistants with 20+ specialized agents, a knowledge extraction system, parallel worktree workflows, and automatic conversation transcript preservation. The tool provides pre-loaded patterns, context management, and automation to transform AI assistants into more capable development partners. It requires Python 3.11+, UV, Node.js, and works primarily in WSL2, though it's explicitly marked as early-stage research software with no stability guarantees or official support.

  3. 3
    Video
    Avatar of fireshipFireship·24w

    Cursor 2.0 is here... 5 things you didn't know it can do

    Cursor 2.0 introduces five major features including a new proprietary Composer model that claims to match frontier AI models while being significantly faster, git worktrees integration for running multiple AI agents in parallel, an agent view mode for chat-heavy development, a native browser with Chrome DevTools for debugging UI elements, and improved workflow for AI-assisted coding. The release positions Cursor as more than just a wrapper around existing AI models by developing its own foundation model, though independent benchmarks are not yet available to verify performance claims.

  4. 4
    Article
    Avatar of hnHacker News·24w

    From VS Code to Helix

    A developer shares their journey switching from VS Code to Helix, a terminal-based text editor. Initially hesitant due to concerns about configuration complexity and learning curve, they were motivated by privacy concerns around Microsoft's AI integration and desire for open-source alternatives. The transition proved smoother than expected thanks to Helix's selection-first editing model and built-in tutorial. The post provides detailed setup instructions for Language Server Protocol integration with Markdown (using Marksman and Harper), Astro, and YAML, including formatters like dprint. While praising Helix's out-of-the-box philosophy and efficiency, the author notes the project struggles with PR backlog and could benefit from better contributor onboarding.

  5. 5
    Article
    Avatar of hnHacker News·26w

    New coding models & integrations · Ollama Blog

    Ollama announces availability of GLM-4.6 and Qwen3-Coder-480B models on their cloud service, with Qwen3-Coder-30B receiving updates for improved tool calling. The models integrate with popular development tools including VS Code, Zed, and Droid. Users can access these coding-focused models through local installation (for systems with sufficient VRAM) or via Ollama's cloud API with authentication. The release includes setup instructions and example prompts demonstrating single-file app generation capabilities.

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    Article
    Avatar of vscodeVisual Studio Code·27w

    September 2025 (version 1.105)

    Visual Studio Code version 1.105 introduces AI-powered merge conflict resolution, OS notifications for task completion and chat responses, and native macOS authentication. The release expands MCP marketplace support for installing servers directly from the Extensions view, adds fully-qualified tool names to avoid conflicts, and improves chat features with recent session history, chain of thought display, and better edit tools for custom models. Additional enhancements include terminal dictation controls, test coverage reporting in the runTests tool, and support for nested AGENTS.md files for workspace-specific AI instructions.

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