If you don't want to use VSCodium's build, you can compile VS Code from source yourself and end up with the same thing. You should also verify that all telemetry is deactivated. If you need them, there are documented workarounds for these issues, but if you rely on something very specific in VS Code, you should verify that it functions in VSCodium. This includes a C# debugger and some gallery extensions. VSCodium cautions that VS Code quietly includes some proprietary tools that cannot be shipped with an open source build. The VSCodium developers also go to great length to deactivate all hard-to-find telemetry options, delivering the cleanest build of VS Code's source you can find without building it yourself. The VSCodium project provides downloadable executables of Code - OSS, built from the VS Code codebase without Microsoft's product.json changes. The easiest alternative to VS Code is VS Code itself, built without Microsoft's proprietary additions. If you'd rather do without the usage tracking, here are some great (and open source) alternatives to VS Code. Whether or not you care about VS Code's telemetry is up to you. It's unlikely that Microsoft is literally tracking your every move, and there's lots of software out there these days that gathers usage data. Most notably, VS Code includes telemetry, which is tracking software.

In practice, the differences between VS Code and Code - OSS are minimal. But when you clone and build the code yourself, none of these targets is configured, so you generate a 'clean' version, which is called Code - OSS (OSS stands for open source software). The official Microsoft-branded release is customized with Microsoft-specific functionality, including a trademark, an extensions gallery, a proprietary C# debugger, and telemetry. VS Code is indeed built upon an open source codebase. The difference is in the build process.Ĭhris Dias, a Microsoft developer on the VS Code project, makes a comparison between VS Code and, for instance, the Chrome browser and its open source 'upstream' project, Chromium.

Yet when you download the VS Code application from Microsoft, you'll find that your download is licensed under the Microsoft Software License. VS Code's source code is available on GitHub.

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