diff --git a/crates/remote/src/transport.rs b/crates/remote/src/transport.rs
index 8dddab2a5d1437240a1ee6a56052f8459f6921a1..6f76977ff9fdeaa1bbc0b7cb5008d7b0cb292d69 100644
--- a/crates/remote/src/transport.rs
+++ b/crates/remote/src/transport.rs
@@ -125,7 +125,10 @@ async fn build_remote_server_from_source(
     use std::env::VarError;
     use std::path::Path;
 
-    let build_remote_server = std::env::var("ZED_BUILD_REMOTE_SERVER").unwrap_or_default();
+    // By default, we make building remote server from source opt-out and we do not force artifact compression
+    // for quicker builds.
+    let build_remote_server =
+        std::env::var("ZED_BUILD_REMOTE_SERVER").unwrap_or("nocompress".into());
 
     if build_remote_server == "false"
         || build_remote_server == "no"