vscodium, vscode without spyware
binary releases of VS Code without MS branding/telemetry/licensing - GitHub - VSCodium/vscodium: binary releases of VS Code without MS branding/telemetry/licensing
chrome : chromium :: vscode : vscodium
That's a good pun. Clearly the authors have mastered the second hardest problem in computer science.
What makes that better is that VS Code is running on Electron, meaning it is running Chromium under the hood. Or at least part of it. Been a while since I read up on it so I can’t remember for certain.
Yes, you have it right.
Codium is actually a species of seaweed. They use it on their logo which is really cool!
Ah, that explains their logo. Always just looked at it and thought it was a bit weird.
TIL!
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.
Alternatively you can deactivate all tracking in VSCode and therefore make it exactly the same as VSCodium afaik. Only takes a few seconds.
VSCodium uses another marketplace. A lot of addons are either on an older version or not even available. Tried it once but moved back to VSCode after a few minutes. I prefer my addons.
Well not exactly the same. I’m not sure anymore but I think it misses the possibility to sync settings via Microsoft account and possibly via GitHub account as well since it belongs to MS but I’m not sure.
As far as I know the telemetry code isn't open-source and so is not vscode. The version installed from https://code.visualstudio.com/ is actually under a non-FOSS license and might have spooky microsoft stuff but vscodium is built directly from the source of vscode without any of that.
FYI: You can make it use the MS extension marketplace: https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/DOCS.md#how-to-use-a-different-extension-gallery
I find most FOSS addons to be avaliable on OpenVSX. Unfortunately, most proprietary microsoft addon only have limited functionality.
I'm a developer and I always leave telemetry on .. when it's my code I find it useful when there's a problem so it gets fixed faster. As long as it's not being used to target ads at me I'm happy to help, esp when it's free software?
Alternatively you can use and support a true community-driven editing environment dedicated to preserving your freedom, like vim/neovim or emacs.
But that's something new to learn and configure. I just want to code why should I spend my time learning another text editor when vscodium is fine
That's fine too. Use whatever does the job for you, but give alternatives a try if you ever have the time.
Well, if you learned emacs, you could do everything in it and won't have to change ever again! /s kinda
Same reason why a carpenter should learn to properly use hand tools, or a teacher should keep up on literature. In other words, master your tools. It doesn't matter which tool you use, provided you can use it to its full potential.
I occasionally use VSCode, but I mostly use ViM because that's my tool of choice.
For another reason, if your ever in the situation where you need to work on something on a remote server or an unfamiliar machine, knowing ViM means you can at least be somewhat productive when you don't have your normal tools available.
I would love to use emacs, unfortunately coding in TypeScript is much more pleasant to me than coding in elisp or lua.
Not to say Typescript is a good experience either, I always feel like fighting the language than actually coding. Just saying they are better than elisp or lua.
Also I find vscode has better mouse interaction, but maybe emacs got better with time.
Are you talking about configuring the editor? Ideally, that's not a common task, so it really shouldn't matter much if it uses TypeScript, elisp, vimscript, or lua.
And if you're primarily using the mouse, you're missing most of the point of editors, especially emacs and ViM. The real power of those editors comes from keyboard shortcuts and combos, not from plugins and menus.
You can also use Debian 1.1 but the makes zero fun as well.
Why make your own life hard for no reason. VIM is really really outdated when it comes to ease of use.
There is not a single thing where vim is better in any way. The argument that it is faster is the biggest lie ever.
Example: I write a few hundred lines of python code and execute it but sadly made formal mistakes. VIM does not help a bit. It might take hours of bugfixing with help of a command line.
Python addon and some others would have instantly found those mistakes saving myself a lot of headache.
That’s the same comparison as the senior developer and the normal dev. The dev might type twice as fast but making 5 times the mistakes he still needs a lot more time than the slow index finger typing senior.
The argument that it is faster is the biggest lie ever
Vscode is written in JavaScript and running in a web browser. Vim is written in C and runs at a console. Of course Vim is faster. Vscode is a hobbled cripple by comparison.
The rest of your comment suggests you are ignorant of vim with plugins and command line tools. I've tried vscode and while it looks nice, I am far faster when developing with vim and a couple of open terminals.
IDEs like VSCose are only powerful because they integrate coding tools like LSPs and completion enginea. Those tools are also available on neo/vim or Emacs, so you can be as proficient as you were with VSCode. Hell, even GitHub's Copilot is available on vim!
And frankly, having started coding on Atom before switching to neovim, I find a keyboard centric, mode-based coding much more efficient than a usual mouse-centric workflow.
It really boils down to personal preference, but I'm eager to find some objective arguments proving that "vim is outdated when it comes to ease of use", because that's not what I experienced.
This is incorrect. Vim and neovim can reach the same level of functionality as VS Code through plugins and extensive configuration. An experienced vim user with plugins is as fast as an experienced VS Code user with plugins.
Getting vim experience and customizing it has a much steeper initial investment. That’s where the disconnect is.
There is an argument to be made that completely mouseless development is faster. This also requires a steep initial investment to pan out.
vim is not outdated, it was easy to use to begin with and could not be optimized any further. Yes, there are plugins/extensions/... to add more features, but on a basic install of vim you have everything you need to navigate source code and config files.
lapce is a vscode replacement that has all the sugar that people love and it's blazingly fast. It's still in alpha but I'm very hopeful for it's future.
Emacs isn't super great for C#. The language server is a bit hit and miss.
Personally though, I use Kate. Ain't got time to learn new keybindings
Am I correct that you also don't get access to the extensions marketplace, though?
You can add the normal vscode extension repos https://github.com/OliverKeefe/vscode-extensions-in-vscodium
Good to know! Thanks!
Note that Codium is a no go if you want to debug .NET projects, really annoying limitation MS put in place...
It's shit like this that keeps me from building any kind of trust in MS-owned open source projects.
Anyone thinking that Microsoft's recently found appreciation for open source isn't a Trojan Horse is a fool.
Is that because of the extension marketplace? Or the fact that the debugger has always been closed source?
VSDbg is closed source, technically licensed under visual studio, and only for MS products. Then they sprinkle some key check that prints a message telling you to use it in an official environment or whatever. It's dumb and needs resolved as part of their OSS efforts but seems more unlikely with each passing year.
Is there firefox based vscode? (JOKE)
Try Floorp, no idea about spyware but it is Firefox with a lot of customization.
Sadly with much less extensions, i use it just to compile and flash my marlin 3D printer and every extension needed has to be set up manually, for some reason even then i can't get it to work.
You can change your product.json to gain access to the Microsoft extension repositories. I still don't do it because fuck ms, for the few extensions that I do need I download them as .vsix on the web frontend.
So you're telling me vscodium has spyware as well?
No, M$ VS Code has telemetry (so, yes, data collection, spying, or whatever you want to call it). VSCodium is actually FOSS, built from the Foss sources, and also only allows you access to the foss extensions in the marketplace.
Note that you still have to disable telemetry in codium (or you did the last time I used it), because much like dot net core and Firefox, the basic level telemetry code is open source as well and so removing it is not in the scope of FLOSS-only rebuilds (probably why they open sourced it in the first place). A slight redeeming factor is that it's actually possible to audit the telemetry in this case, and make sure it doesn't collect more than it claims and disabling it in the settings means it's actually disabled.
What you think Tauri's potential in cross-platform ui like editors development?
As others have mentioned there are unfortunately issues in detail when using an inofficial version of VSCode and even more issues when using the original VSCode of course. I get that it's currently the most popular code editor but it's really not recommended to use it. It's kind of painfully obvious that Microsoft is driving the development of VSCode, and MS is simply not your friend. Not even when it gives you a permissively-licensed open source tool. It's still kind of poisoned albeit at a low dosage, making it hard to detect. The type of poison we're talking here are opt-out (if you're lucky) telemetry (of course!), features or extensions which are ONLY compatible with the OFFICIAL build of VSCode so you can't 100% work around VSCode's issues by "being smart" and using a better-preconfigured inofficial build, and as an Electron-based application it's very bloated and prone to security issues. And, of course, Microsoft steers its development so it may at any point introduce additional anti-features (which is likely, since this is MS we're talking about here) and also steer its users away from using inofficial builds which might in theory fix some of those anti-features. It smells, and it's not a particularly smart long-term time investment option.
My recommendations are:
If you want another relatively easy option learn the Vim keybindings (not that hard) and then use Neovim or NVim or however it's called officially. It can be made into a full-fledged IDE with tons of modern features including LSP and Treesitter quite quickly and painlessly. As a bonus you become familiar with Vim which is present on basically all Linux/Unix/*BSD based operating systems on the planet, so it's useful to know its basics.
If you don't mind the harder but more rewarding option, learn and configure Emacs (maybe start with Doom Emacs, it's easier at the start and uses the Vim keybinds by default). Some other "starter kits" or "distributions" exist as well of course, e.g. Bedrock or Crafted Emacs. Emacs can do literally everything and more, it just needs a lot of time to tweak it, it uses a weird language, and the learning curve at the very start is basically a straight wall into the sky including an overhang. But once you've climbed that, it's an amazing tool for life, going beyond just code editing. Emacs has been around ~40 years and is even growing stronger recently so it's rock solid and highly dependable, a real tool for life. Also it's community-maintained, GNU-backed FOSS without weird drawbacks. Since its default keybinds (as well as many other defaults) are ancient (terrible) you should either customize them in various possible ways or use evil-mode which allows you to use basically all of Vim's keybinds inside Emacs as well.