So what’s so bad in the end? If vscode is good and closed source, I’d still use it.
You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
#12Is there any technical evidence that Microsoft is doing something suspicious with the binaries? Differing hashes? Weird network traffic? Binary de-compilation? Its not hard to find evidence if you've got a hunch, instead of publishing a fear piece like this.
The license forbids you to reverse-engineer, so how would you find out without breaking the license?
You can download the .deb/.rpm without accepting the license.
Re: You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
#13Is there any technical evidence that Microsoft is doing something suspicious with the binaries? Differing hashes? Weird network traffic? Binary de-compilation? Its not hard to find evidence if you've got a hunch, instead of publishing a fear piece like this.
The license forbids you to reverse-engineer, so how would you find out without breaking the license?
Come on, nobody is preventing anyone from running the binary with strace or with wireshark open and comparing it to a version compiled from their sources. It's absolutely something which would've been relevant in a post like this one.
Re: You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
#14This has been known for nearly two years now[1], and was talked about here a few months ago[2]. VSCode also downloads code from MicroSoft servers during the build process and won't build without an Internet connection. I'm pretty sure someone had forked VSCode like ungoogled-chromium but I can't find the repository. [1] https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/17996 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17346492
Are you thinking of https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium ?
Re: You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is a fear piece, but the premise that the binary is not MIT-licensed is true. This is the same for the dotNET core binaries, they don't have the same license as the source either. Now I think of it, this probably applies to most open-source libraries including ASP.NET MVC. Perhaps because they use hardware-based signing of the binary?
>It is a fear piece, Why, you are even forbidden to reverse engineer or hack the binary so it is the total opposite of free software. Any idea why would they put this limitations on the binaries? What does MS gains for this ?
What it gains is the ability to include some proprietary bits, including their branding, the extension system, and the option to send telemetry back.
Just the same reason that the chrome binary isn't open source. Though MS doesn't make it's money on personal information, so the telemetry part is much more restricted.
Re: You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
#16Is there any technical evidence that Microsoft is doing something suspicious with the binaries? Differing hashes? Weird network traffic? Binary de-compilation? Its not hard to find evidence if you've got a hunch, instead of publishing a fear piece like this.
Telemetry is added in the Microsoft code for sure, plus some suggestions to Microsoft extensions.
Re: You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
#17Is there any technical evidence that Microsoft is doing something suspicious with the binaries? Differing hashes? Weird network traffic? Binary de-compilation? Its not hard to find evidence if you've got a hunch, instead of publishing a fear piece like this.
The license forbids you to reverse-engineer, so how would you find out without breaking the license?
I strongly agree, as I said in the article by license using VSC your renounce your rights to reverse-engineer the VSC. So you take a legal risk making it and blogging/talking/podcasting about it on Internet and can face legal actions.
Re: You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
#18Is there any technical evidence that Microsoft is doing something suspicious with the binaries? Differing hashes? Weird network traffic? Binary de-compilation? Its not hard to find evidence if you've got a hunch, instead of publishing a fear piece like this.
The license forbids you to reverse-engineer, so how would you find out without breaking the license?
Simple: you don't accept a license. If you want to reverse engineer it, just do it. You don't need their permission.
Re: You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It is a fear piece, Why, you are even forbidden to reverse engineer or hack the binary so it is the total opposite of free software. Any idea why would they put this limitations on the binaries? What does MS gains for this ?
What it gains is the ability to include some proprietary bits, including their branding, the extension system, and the option to send telemetry back. Just the same reason that the chrome binary isn't open source. Though MS doesn't make it's money on personal information, so the telemetry part is much more restricted.
>telemetry part is much more restricted
Are you saying that Microsoft is collecting less information than Google would in the same situation? I find that very hard to believe looking at Microsoft's history. Do you have anything to back it up? The only comparison I can come up with is Windows 10 versus ChromeOS.
Re: You Think the Visual Studio Code Binary You Use Is Open Source? Think Again
#20This has been known for nearly two years now[1], and was talked about here a few months ago[2]. VSCode also downloads code from MicroSoft servers during the build process and won't build without an Internet connection. I'm pretty sure someone had forked VSCode like ungoogled-chromium but I can't find the repository. [1] https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/17996 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17346492
Are you thinking of https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium ?
Covered here just a few weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17850960
This article is similarly alarmist with some stupid click bait title suggesting that you are too stupid to read the documentation that comes with VS Code which points all of this out but somehow smart enough to read the genius bit of journalism that uncovered this terrible truth.
Just checkout what vscodium actually modifies. There are a few small diffs to disable telemetry and take out branding and a few other things.
But this is hardly some secret plot by MS to do something evil. It's a nice product provided to you by free by MS that is almost entirely open source. Yes it has a bit of branding and a bit of telemetry, which is presumably there to help them improve the product.
If the handful of stuff in there that isn't OSS bothers you for whatever reason, you can indeed build from source and take these things out like vscodium seems to be doing. You'd be well in your rights to do that. And it's very relevant for e.g. linux distributions like Debian or OSS purists.