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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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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.