I switched from VScode to VSCodium

2 min readOct 8, 2023

Introduction

In the ever-evolving landscape of software development, the tools we use profoundly impact our productivity, workflow, and privacy. With this in mind, I have recently made the switch from Visual Studio Code (VS Code) to VSCodium, a transition motivated by a desire for a more tailored and privacy-focused coding experience.

What privacy concern with VSCode?

Microsoft’s VSCode source code is open source (MIT-licensed), and 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

VSCodium is a free and open-source alternative to Visual Studio Code (VS Code), which is a popular code editor. doesn’t collect any data about how you use it, making it more private. On the Other hand, it works similarly and supports extensions, so you can customize it for your coding needs just like VS Code. It’s a good choice if you want a code editor that respects your privacy.

I wanna install it!

Step1 — Install HomeBrew

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Step2 — Run this command

brew cask install vscodium

installation for other platforms — visit this link

But what about my extensions and settings in VScode?

Export your settings

cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/settings.json ~/vscode-settings.json
cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/keybindings.json ~/vscode-keybindings.json

2. Export extensions

code --list-extensions | tee ~/vscode-extensions.txt

3. Reinstall extensions for VSCodium

xargs -n1 codium --install-extension < ~/vscode-extensions.txt

4. Import settings for VSCodium

mv ~/vscode-settings.json ~/Library/Application\ Support/VSCodium/User/settings.json
mv ~/vscode-keybindings.json ~/Library/Application\ Support/VSCodium/User/keybindings.json

Conclusion

the decision to switch from Visual Studio Code (VS Code) to VSCodium represents a deliberate choice driven by privacy and customization considerations.
Though VSCodium supports almost all extensions that Vscode does few Microsoft-branded extensions are not available. So, If you are using such an extension then you are restricted to using VSCode.