Debunking the Myth: Why Visual Studio Code Isn’t Truly Open Source
As an architect and developer, I have worked on numerous projects that have required strict security and compliance measures. During one such project, I was tasked with ensuring that all software tools used were fully open source, as per the project’s requirements.
As I was reviewing the software tools being used, I was surprised to discover that the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) we were using, Visual Studio Code, was not actually fully open source.
Back in November 2015, Microsoft released a beta open-source version of Visual Studio Code and also open-sourced the VS Code repository. However, this doesn’t mean that VS Code is entirely open source. Instead, it’s more accurate to say that VS Code is built on top of an open-source project called Code-Open Source Software (Code-OSS), which serves as the core layer. Code-OSS is available on GitHub under the standard MIT License.
However, Microsoft VS Code is a Microsoft licensed distribution of ‘Code — OSS’ that includes Microsoft proprietary assets and features like Visual Studio Marketplace integration and telemetry system that are not available in Code-OSS. Thus, Microsoft follows an ‘open core model’ for VS Code and is not actually open-source.
The ‘open core model’ is when a company provides some basic features of a product for free and as open source. However, they also release additional features that can only be accessed with a fee or are proprietary (meaning only the company that created them can use or modify them).
That leaves us with three downsides:
- Limited transparency: Without access to the complete source code, it’s difficult for users to identify security vulnerabilities, bugs, or other issues. It also makes it hard to know what data is being collected through telemetry or how it’s being used.
- Restricted customizability: Since Microsoft owns the proprietary assets and features of Visual Studio Code, users can’t modify or extend them without permission. This limits the software’s customizability and prevents developers from creating fully independent forks of the code.
- Lack of inclusivity: Some users may prefer open-source software as they tend to have fewer restrictions and can be freely modified and shared. By not being fully open source, Visual Studio Code excludes these users and developers from being able to fully engage with the software.
Why was I thinking that VS Code is an open-source IDE?
Devil is in the details. When you go to the Visual Studio Code page it states:
Free. Built on open source. Runs everywhere.
As this statement is not meant to be misleading, but rather to acknowledge the fact that VS Code is not entirely open source, in my opinion, is very misleading. Engineers seek factual responses rather than semantics.
Is the Microsoft only one doing that?
The answer is no. Several other companies deploy the open-core model. For example, Google built Chrome on Chromium, an open-source browser, and then modified it to incorporate proprietary Google features, which are released as proprietary freeware. The same is true for the Oracle JDK, Xamarin Studio, and JetBrains. These applications have been built on top of OpenJDK, MonoDevelop, and IntelliJ, respectively.
What does telemetry mean in Visual Studio code?
It refers to the collection of usage data from the users, such as the features they use, their operating system and hardware configurations, and their errors and crashes. This data is sent back to Microsoft to help improve the product’s performance, reliability, and user experience. However, some users may be concerned about privacy implications and can disable telemetry in the IDE’s settings.
Fortunately, for those who are concerned about the proprietary components in Visual Studio Code, there is an alternative that is truly open source and forked from it. This alternative is called VSCodium, and it is a community-driven, fully open-source version of Visual Studio Code.
VSCodium is essentially the same program as Visual Studio Code, but with all proprietary components removed. This means that users can enjoy all the features and benefits of Visual Studio Code, without having to worry about any proprietary components collecting and sending data to Microsoft.
In conclusion, VSCodium provides a truly open-source alternative to Visual Studio Code, without any of the concerns surrounding the proprietary components in the latter. With its community-driven development and compatibility with many of the same extensions as Visual Studio Code, VSCodium is a great option for developers who are looking for a fully open-source IDE.
