In this tutorial we'll go over why you should make the switch, and how you can retain all of your extensions when you do make the switch. It won't take more than a couple of minutes to do the actual change!
The problem with Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio code is without a doubt the most used Code editor (for front end developers at least). It definitely provides a lot of helpful extensions of which there have been umpteen posts about.
So why would I suggest you uninstall it for something else?
Whilst Microsoft’s vscode source code is open source (MIT-licensed), the product available for download (Visual Studio Code) is licensed under this not-FLOSS license and contains telemetry/tracking.
...may collect information about you and your use of the software, and send that to Microsoft... You may opt-out of many of these scenarios, but not all...
Microsoft insist this is for bug tracking and so on, which may well be true. But you never know what else the data could end up being used for in the hands of someone unscrupulous.
You can turn off telemetry reporting in Visual Studio Code, but there are plenty of opportunities for Microsoft to add other features in, which may slip past your attention.
Run this command in your terminal and check your output
code --telemetry
Not great, lets change it.
VSCodium
VSCodium ... is not a fork. This is a repository of scripts to automatically build Microsoft's vscode repository into freely-licensed binaries with a community-driven default configuration.
This means we don't have to go through the hassle of building each version ourselves, everything is done for us and the best part is we get these binaries under the MIT license. Telemetry is completely disabled.
Moreover, the editor itself looks and functions exactly the same, you won't miss a thing!
That's a pretty simple and compelling argument.
How to install VSCodium and keep all your extensions and settings
This is the easy part. I will focus upon macOS, but these instructions are pretty simple to amend to other platforms.
updated to include settings
Make sure you have Homebrew installed:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
1. Export all your installed extensions
First export all of your installed extensions into a text file (amend the output path as you see fit)
code --list-extensions | tee ~/vscode-extensions.txt
This will output all of your extensions to ~/vscode-extensions.txt and list them out in your terminal for you to see.
2. Export your settings
Export any custom keybindings and user settings you have as default.
cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/settings.json ~/vscode-settings.json
cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/keybindings.json ~/vscode-keybindings.json
3. Uninstall Visual Studio Code
We use the force argument so that nothing gets left behind that would clash or interrupt VSCodium's install.
brew cask uninstall --force visual-studio-code
4. Install VSCodium
brew cask install vscodium
5. Reinstall your extensions for VSCodium
Because VSCodium has the same command line tools, we invoke them the same was as before
xargs -n1 code --install-extension < ~/vscode-extensions.txt
This went through the file and executed code --install-extension on each line individually.
You should have seen the output in your terminal.
If you get a DeprecationWarning: Buffer()... warning, you don't need to worry, it's related to Yarn and can be resolved with yarn global add yarn
6. Import your settings
mv ~/vscode-settings.json ~/Library/Application\ Support/VSCodium/User/settings.json
mv ~/vscode-keybindings.json ~/Library/Application\ Support/VSCodium/User/keybindings.json
Now you should be set and ready to go, the only thing you should notice is the logo is different. Everything else will work, feel and function the same as before.
Happy coding devs!
Discussion
The reason is not compelling enough. So, I am going to stick to VS Code - it is a great product.
VSCodium is literally the exact same product, just under the license Microsoft purports to release VSCode under
The exact same product with loads of extra setup steps and only dubious benefits.
not at all, the only extra steps were migrating from Visual Studio. Everything else is the same. What do you think is dubious?
brew cask install vscodium==extra setup steps? O_oOH. You must mean "keystrokes". Yeah i guess it's, like, two more of those.
I do not have any issues with the license.
🥇
People other than you still might, though
People don't get you are literally using the same product. From the exact same repo.
Dunno if I agree with that. Microsoft has all the work to build a product that, as you said, most of devs are using, and then offers it for free. So I think it's only fair to use and endorse their product if you like it.
No because they allow you to build it yourself. It's open source, but the installer isn't. So you are arguing for using their installer....not vscode
Valid argument. However this isn't effecting their bottom line. Ultimately this is a tool to upsell into and buy other services such as Azure, which I'm signed up to and happy with.
I installed codium three weeks ago and I had to disable telemetry. I was irritated about that.
anyhow, I am still using it.
And for those who claim to not care about giving your data away...
youtube.com/watch?v=hIXhnWUmMvw
Cheers and stay safe and healthy
Please stop that moaning... Telemetry is good, useful and anonymous. It is also the reason why vscode is so good. In few years people will forget Web storm. And let's be honest. How does Microsoft or anyone else care but you? You really think you're worth the target?
Different strokes for different folks.
It's not about being a target. It's about a choice, I'm making one because it's available and I'm sharing it with anyone else who wants the same. This is not a moan, this is some information, how you perceive it is down to you.
Hmm.....what about Brave browser then?
To add to what Al said, anonymous telemetry is good. Projects like brave and VSCodium usually heavily depend on projects that are improved by anonymous telemetry. Now, some people might not be comfortable even with this but in all honesty people who use software for free and wont even provide crash reports and other general telemetry ARE leaching off people who do without giving back. VSCodium is great because it is VSCode but if it were a hard fork without ever pulling updates from upstream (MS VSCode) and decided to work on their own, I doubt it be able to keep up with them in terms of improvement without insights on how users are using the software and where are things faltering (assuming all other factors like userbase, effort, etc are equal).
I'm also OK with sending telemetry, I assume it helps the project. But I'd prefer to run only open-source binaries (out of FOSS purity), so I'm considering to switch.
I read this as "in the hands of someone scrumptious" and got very confused for a couple of seconds :)
😂😂 - or even sumptuous?
Should be "unscrupulous" in the context. Someone scrupulous is honorable.
That said, you can see what is being collected, and how in the source code. Also, there's a lot of data with them just running the plugins repository, which you haven't and largely couldn't replicate.
You're responding to the wrong person
you could probably just use the Settings Sync extension to move all extensions/settings/data over
Looks like an interesting alternative! The reason I did it via command line is because I intend to plug the commands into my dotfiles
It's a choice for those who are pretty vested about tracking. I guess in my personal opinion for me at least that Microsoft has given the option to do so builds trust that they are not what they used to be ( Looking at you Ballmer ) and other than that is a great product. And having to run trough all these steps wouldn't be my cup.
I was and to a certain extent still am a complete advocate for privacy and security. I believe our data should stay our data unless we consent otherwise.
However, with this being said very few people are willing to commit to a life of complete online privacy. Try getting rid of all Google, Apple, Microsoft and all other big tech companies products. It's unfortunately just not feasible in the world we live in.
So, while I'd love to switch away to a product like this that respects my privacy more than the original, I feel like the pain points it'll introduce like delayed updates, possible bugs, less support and other issues stops me.
I do respect anyone who takes the pursuit for privacy seriously but the drop of convenience and productivity it often causes is to much for me. 🤷🏻♂️
Likewise. I use macOS and have jumped back and forth from various linux distros for the reasons you outlined.
I held off moving to VSCodium because Visual Studio Code was good enough with telemetry disabled. But I made the switch anyway and it's been pain free so far.
I'm currently using Pop OS (a version of Ubuntu) after moving from Windows 10 (because of privacy) but due to the lack of support for software like Adobe. (I do expect this for Linux due to the nature of it). But, I'm heavily debating a switch to MacOS for this reason but my main pain point is how much Apple charge for it.
I would move off VS Code but I've found if companies are going to take my data, I want something in return. This is why I'm not against using Google and its services. I might as well get a service off them for giving them my data.
Unless you use something like freebsd, there is always a compromise to be made. I run my own wireguard vpn, use protonmail. But I also use a bunch of things just to get stuff done. It's just a case of taking control where feasible I guess.
That's exactly my mentality, I admit I could commit more. I could move off Gmail but to do so would be a lot of work and I'm not sure what I'd actually gain from it.
I love that the options exist and they definitely should but unfortunately I think the convenience these big companies offer to everyone outweighs people's desire to control their data. 🤷🏻♂️
well technically, it shouldn't pose any issue since your are using the same thing minus the telemetry.
That said, I personally would still stick to VS Code.
I tried VSCodium before. It's absolutely the same as VSCode, it's true. But the reason I switched back to VSCode is that it has a better logo. Yeah, telemetry isn't an argument for me.
I found an interesting use case for VSCodium though. I set it up and use for Python only. VSCode is for frontend only.
Don't forget to add a
\betweenApplicationandSupportin steps 2 and 5.Otherwise the path will be incorrect and the
cpandmvcommands will fail.Eg:
~/Library/Application\ Support/VSCodium/User/settings.jsonthanks for pointing that out! updated
While it’s true that you could better protect yourself privacy-wise with VSCodium, the same cannot be said about third-party extensions, which may very well contain what you are trying to protect yourself of: telemetry[1]. All in all, good article.
1: code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstar...
I am just going to say that even if this offered a noticeably better experience (it doesn't, it is "better" but quite frankly I don't care if vscode is gathering data on me, I'm already using windows so Microsoft already has all the access it wants) I wouldn't do this because it adds another point of failure, another thing to consider, and another step when setting up a computer.
All that said it is nice that this exists because some people care about that.
People nowadays run from telemetry like they are some sort of billionaire philanthropist or even know stuff governments are after and I simply don’t get it.
You’re not that important, and whatever is it that you do isn’t valuable on its own. No one will be sitting at Microsoft talking about what one single person did when they opened VSCode on XYZ date because this is not how analytics data is used... so please save your time and just use whatever editor you’d like. You can run from telemetry as much as you’d like, but you’ll never be able to escape from it. If you use Github Microsoft already has all the data they want from you anyways, and guess what? there’s nothing you can do. So yeah... good luck trying to be anonymous.
I don't think a prompt to enable "anonymized" telemetry during the first setup would've been bad (defaulting to no).
And you don't have to be a target to simple not want your data being sent to a third-party. Our data is one of the most precious commodities of today, and yes - people really do care about your data. After all, Google makes millions off of yours.
All I'm saying, is that there is no reason people shouldn't have a choice. You'll never be 100% anonymous, but you can make the process hard and involved for someone to track you down and gather your information.
Power to the people, not the corporations.
Bare in mind the extensions you install might have their own telemetry, for example the cpp extension. And I don't think there is a way to turn their telemetry off :/
I have ended up firewalling vscode to completely block telemetry, but I wouldn't recommend it.
I just don't get it.
What do you think my legal team missed and that you didn't.??? Is my legal misleading me?
My legal says articles like this are just unnecessary techno panic!!!? Are they misleading me? Please advise?
For your legal team in Bangalore.
What is the difference between the Microsoft Public License and the MIT/BSD licenses?
The main reason for doing that switch is ethical.
But there could be some other reasons. We have monitored the traffic of VSCode and it's literally sending traffic over the internet every minutes, back and forth, lots of data. That alone leads to some CPU usage, internet traffic and battery usage.
So if you want to have a more efficient setup, go green mind, and you don't want that Microsoft monitors all your keystrokes and work, go for VSCodium.
We are many that did the jump. Thanks to @0xdonut for the great work which make the jump even easier :)
Recently, VSCodium asks me for an update. I wonder if it is true that there is no telemetry?
I don't think it's transmitting information, just checking and receiving from the github releases
What I don't get here (in the comments and on some other pages) is that apparently VSCode isn't Open Source? VSCode has a GitHub with the entire full source - VSCodium even DEPENDS on that GitHub. Do your (not directed at the author but at the reader) research before you spout such nonsense like "VSCode isn't FOSS" even though it very much is
(Quote from the VSCodium GitHub)
There are differences between vscode and vscode-oss: github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/D... . The main reason I haven't switched to vscode-oss is because I use the remote ssh development features of vscode often enough that it would be annoying to lose them.
Since writing this article a lot of extensions and plugins I used have been blocked due to licencing.
I've gone back to VSCode (reluctantly), but I've disabled all the telemetry features.
Even though a lot of extensions work for both, they are not available within the marketplace. In my case looking for a simple TimeStamp is going to make me go back to VSCode. Because, yes, I could set up VSCode, export the settings, go back to Codium, import those settings. But good gods … not compelling enough.
As a user and an extension developer (specifically for this) I prefer the vscode. So far our conversation, issue-resolving with the vscode, has been pretty good. I really don't know how it will be if we use codium instead of vscode. Will the codium team be responsible or vscode?
So I would still prefer vscode for their prompt responses.
The difference is just who builds the vscode. The application and licence are the end product. So I am taking an educated guess that any issue would be the same because the code base is the same.
If you're on Linux, a better way to keep your extensions without having to reinstall them:
When removing vscode, use:
apt remove code
instead of purge.
Then, after installing codium, go to your terminal and do:
mv ~/.vscode/extensions/ ~/vscode-oss/extensions.
That worked for me.
instead of purge. Then, after installing codium, go to your terminal and enter this:
ln -s ~/.vscode/extensions ~/vscode-oss/extensions
or do:
Sorry but this is nonsense to me.
The "telemetry" is useful for Microsoft to make VSCode better.
Don't you want VSCode to be better?
It tells Microsoft how much and in which ways people are using VSCode, but it does not spy on the code you're writing.
Think of it what you will, I did say they use it for the reasons you've stated.
But if you subscribe to FOSS philosophy then VSCodium is an option available.
Good piece, this is something I can pass to people before they install the non Open Source edition. Thanks for writing it!
My pleasure :)
If you are thinking about doing this consider using Theia instead I just switched over to gitpod (gitpod.io) this weekend. It uses all the same extension as VSO but in my opinion is better.
Wasn't aware of the licensing part. Normally I would just turn off Telemetry. Painless enough to switch on Fedora so I did so. Literally no difference. Thanks for the write-up!
Thanks for this migration guide.
Just your code line for step 5 (reinstalling the extensions) doesn‘t work.
The command for VSCodium in terminal is ‚codium‘ and not ‚code‘.
Hmm, I've not had this issue, my
codestill works as expected...If the problem still persists l guess you could alias it
alias code='codium'So how does this update, on Linux specifically?
The steps to carry over extensions are for migrating, how do new extensions install? same as regular vscode?
Yes, everything else operates the same
In that case I'll definitely check it out
You totally forgot
settings.json. How do I find and copy it?I did mention above that I wouldn't cover moving settings across.
I'll update the tutorial to cover them now.