The big news today is that TextMate 2.0 Alpha has been released. I downloaded it this evening and started playing around with it. My initial impression is that I love it.

To say that TextMate 2 has been “long-awaited” would be an understatement. Back in 2006, developer Allan Odgaard announced that 2.0 was in the works and would be coming soon. Five years and a complete rewrite later, it’s finally here.

This is Alpha software, and there are a few bugs in it — like preview. But overall it’s been stable enough for me to use. Using the Alpha requires a 1.0 license, so only previous TextMate owners can get in on it. (It will be a free upgrade, but as Marco Arment says, it’s well worth paying for again.)