Earlier quoted context omitted.
You got an installer with yours?!
They're probably using Windows.
It’s easy to forget just how many things require an installer-wizard-type process on Windows after being on macOS and Linux for a few years.
VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
141–150 of 265 posts
Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
#142There's already a comment here, and I've also personally experienced just from talking with others offline, that a lot of people don't even know VSCode had telemetry, despite it mentioned several times in the product itself and its documentation. They (and remember, these people are supposedly developers ) either ignored it, or just didn't read the docs. I guess a big WARNING banner might scare users away, but it's s…
> They (and remember, these people are supposedly developers) either ignored it, or just didn't read the docs.
Or they forgot and their stance on it changed. I vaguely remembered (or thought I did) having seen it. Just checked my settings and it's disabled. I've gotten way more privacy minded in the last 24 months, so I figured I might have said "yeah, you can collect data" back when I first installed it, but now I'd prefer they didn't.
A middle way would be to periodically remind people, "hey, you've consented to sending anonymous usage data to us so we can make better decisions. I just wanted to confirm that you're still cool with this" once a year or something, because at least for me, "does this app collect telemetry data?" is not something I constantly have in my working memory.
Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope#Non-fallacious_... No, that still falls into fallacious usage. The user doesn't justify why the steps of their assertion follow after the other. Just that they... do.
No one needs to justify the "why" when we're talking about a very well trodden slippery slope.
if it can be that well trodden, is it really still a slippery slope?
Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
#144Some developers are a funny bunch, always chasing after the next cool thing: either a language, an editor, a stack or a methodology. I’ve watched the RoR hype, the Agile frenzy, the Sublime Text popularity, the Angular and React mania... The truth of the matter is that while a developer needs to keep up with new tech, often “new” doesn’t mean better, just different. Choosing the right tools for the job at hand from all the available ones, not just the “cool” ones, is an often missed quality of a good developer.
Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
#145Is this needed? You can disable telemetry from the settings: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/FAQ#_how-to-di...
Telemetry is reset to enabled on every update, don't forget to change every time.
Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
It maybe starts with simple statistics. But then you want to know what features the user use, then you want to know what other programs they have installed. Then you want to know what the users search for on the web. etc. It's a slippery slope.
One could be totally uncritical about the current or future intentions of Microsoft and still prefer a version with no telemetry. Data breaches are very common. Employees, hackers, or governments could all gain access to the data. The data could be accidentally broadcast or left in a vulnerable place. Even the payroll data for the national security establishment was once reported to be compromised. Everything is vuln…
Yeah, there is a reason why the Kremlin uses mechanical typewriters.
Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not a fallacy. When a printer driver reporting stats back to the manufacturer made national news in the early 2000s and prompted calls for laws regulating privacy, the argument was that it was a slippery slope fallacy to assert that privacy violations would get worse. Look at where we are now.
>>It's not a fallacy. By itself no, but it is often used fallaciously. Such as in this case, when someone is opposing some good thing on the basis that that good thing might, some day, lead to bad things.
What you’ve described there is exactly how bad things come to be.
You think people elect for bad things? Bad governments, bad software or privacy violations? They chose things that are full of rhetoric and promises of good things then those bad things get snuck in off the back off relaxed regulation, or existing software adoption, etc.
Take Facebook as an example, people didn’t sign up to it thinking “I wanted to be tracked around the internet so I can have personalised adverts” nor dis Zuckerburg think “Wouldn’t it be good to create a platform that could latter be used for rigging elections”. No, instead we got there because of a serious of good ideas that slowly got abused.
There is a saying that goes “The path to hell is paved by good intentions.” I’m not a religious man but I think that beautifully illustrates how slippery slopes are not a logical fallacy.
Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
#148I suspect the tracking in VSCode is mainly used to improve the product. It's probably in my best interest, and the interest of the community as a whole to leave tracking on. I mean, I get it, HN is usually a more skeptical and security-focused crowd. At the same time, it's likely MS will just take that information and tailor their bugfixes and features to the things I need most, so by all means I want them to have it…
> tracking in VSCode is mainly used to improve the product.
Not only, that's the main problem. And I can't simply trust it for company without dark M$ reputation and EEE experience.
Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
#149I suspect the tracking in VSCode is mainly used to improve the product. It's probably in my best interest, and the interest of the community as a whole to leave tracking on. I mean, I get it, HN is usually a more skeptical and security-focused crowd. At the same time, it's likely MS will just take that information and tailor their bugfixes and features to the things I need most, so by all means I want them to have it…
I agree. As someone who builds product (with opt in tracking) understanding users is key to building a good product.
Absolutely, also it is amazing how little tracking does to understand users.
Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you’re right, but it needs to be a user choice. If presented with an option, I would likely leave it turned on 90% of the time. I hope this project motivates MS to open source the runtime and making tracking a user- selected option. I really like Code and think MS has really helped the dev community by making it so great and free. But I would like to see them embrace f/l/oss for all their non-core products an…
Isn't it? When I opened VS Code on a new computer for the first time today, a message popped up with step by step instructions to opt out
When I was using azure data studio the opt out was to visit a link, read the wiki page, open the settings.json file using your file manager and then paste in the tracking opt out key and restart the program. Or you could just close the message and be tracked. This is absolutely unacceptable opting out of tracking should be made exactly the same effort or less effort than opting in.