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vscodium, vscode without spyware
(github.com)
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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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It's a bad comparison. Non-Google Chrome browsers (like Chromium) can still connect to Google's extension store to download browser extensions (like uBlock Origin). Only VS Code can connect to the VS Code Marketplace. Codium cannot. It's bullshit.
I am using VsCodium and I can install extensions. It's my default code editor and it has nothing less than my coworkers' MS Visual Studio Code.
Edit: just understood VsCodium uses a non-official marketplace for extensions, but for my needs I've always found everything
The problems are that VSIX binaries can't legally be redistributed and many of them aren't even open source in the first place. Many won't even work if you manually download them and add them to Codium. VS Code really doesn't deserve to be viewed as open source in any way shape or form and folks need to embrace the Open VSX market place and avoid Microsoft's like the plague.
You're lucky to have found all the extensions you need. That's not the norm.
It's like GitHub. A proprietary platform that's really popular for open source development for some reason, when there are actually open source alternatives available.
Nobody views GitHub as open source. Folks do believe that VS Code is open source but because the extension store can't be accessed by anything else (like an actual open source build of VS Code's codebase) it's an extremely dirty lie.
Also, VSIX extensions are full-on software packages. They contain binary executables that have access to both the inside of the editor and the rest of your system. If they didn't have access to your system there would be no way that they can hook into non-editor applications like your compiler or runtime debugger, or have the ability to pull files from outside the working directory. But they obviously can do all that, either usefully or maliciously.
This is specifically in response to the argument of "so what if VSIX extensions aren't open source? They're just extensions right?" No. They are applications. And they can individually contain just as much spyware and all the trappings of proprietary code as if you had used a fully proprietary editor.
Its not a bad comparison. Sure, some details might differ, but the underlying concept of a build that only uses the open source code is the same.
The reason it's a ad comparison is because it gives Microsoft way too much credit. Making an open source editor use a totally proprietary extension market and have proprietary extensions you can't redistribute and even having many of those extensions not work with Codium just because of strings that don't match is fucking bullshit. It's disgusting. It's totally deceitful. Especially because the way these light weight editor IDEs work all of the useful bits come from extensions, not the program itself.
More on the subject: https://www.eclipse.org/community/eclipse_newsletter/2020/march/1.php
Damn, that seems to be flagrantly anti-competitive. Has Microsoft attempted to justify why they do that?
I don't know but this is what Eclipse has said about Open VSX.
https://www.eclipse.org/community/eclipse_newsletter/2020/march/1.php
Codium can connect to the MS market, they don't do it by default because of unclear legalise. Edit: unclear, not clear
If by "unclear" you mean "crystal clear" then yeah, they don't do it because Microsoft specifically disallows it in the terms of service. https://cdn.vsassets.io/v/M190_20210811.1/_content/Microsoft-Visual-Studio-Marketplace-Terms-of-Use.pdf
Unclear because both urls were uploaded to to github under open source license by a Microsoft developer, and then promptly removed. I can't find it now (could be removed, could be posted in an issue) but VSCodium have instructions on how to change to MS's marketplace.
Last I read, Microsoft hadn't replied on whether it was legal or not to use their makeplace, since it was uploaded under open source. Thus again, unclear.
Edit: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/31168 The issue where the license of the marketplace is discussed.
How does that make you allowed to violate the terms of service for the VS marketplace? A URL pointing to it doesn't mean you suddenly are allowed to use it in a fork. The license just means you can copy that string of text. It doesn't give you permission to do anything with it.
Just skimmed the link, and from what I understand the legal document prohibiting use of their marketplace did not exist in 2017 (or I am wrong and it took 5 years for someone to dig it up from Terms of Use).
I think it's the latter.