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OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

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Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I switch from vscodium to theia?

Theia is not a fork of vscode (even though it looks like it). It uses VSCode's code editor (Monoco) and is written from the ground up. Presumably allowing it to support extensions, that for example, vscode does not. However, its early days.

Theia is not a fork except all the parts that are.

Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#62
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that you're conflating few concepts, hackability, "open source", single point of failure architectures. Yes, VSC is less hackable than emacs, but I don't think it's necessarily the same thing. VSC (and others like it) are going for a more streamlined "App Store" experience, while emacs is going for a more DIY/hackable style editor. You can always fetching the VSIX file and sideload it is if the "store" is down…

My point about VSC is that brands itself as "open source" when Microsoft clearly intends for it to have a proprietary, tightly controlled ecosystem. It's not just RMS-unapproved, it's practically a lie. You can use it as a FOSS editor, but only if you are willing to accept a vastly subpar experience. Oh, and they've started cracking down on people using their proprietary VSC plugins in derived editors, too. I expecte…

> You can use it as a FOSS editor, but only if you are willing to accept a vastly subpar experience.

Why is this Microsoft's fault, though? Nothing is stopping the open source community from creating a more resilient extension distribution system.

Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#63
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theia is not a fork of vscode (even though it looks like it). It uses VSCode's code editor (Monoco) and is written from the ground up. Presumably allowing it to support extensions, that for example, vscode does not. However, its early days.

> However, its early days. Theia has been out for eight years now,

Came out of beta less then a year ago. What I mean is adoption is slow (if even there), so I'm sure there is quite a lot missing.

But that's probably fine, Theia seems to be focused more on the current audience of Eclipse which is vendor tooling (chipmakers, FPGA, custom toolchains) rather than being an editor you are supposed to use by itself.

Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#64
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point about VSC is that brands itself as "open source" when Microsoft clearly intends for it to have a proprietary, tightly controlled ecosystem. It's not just RMS-unapproved, it's practically a lie. You can use it as a FOSS editor, but only if you are willing to accept a vastly subpar experience. Oh, and they've started cracking down on people using their proprietary VSC plugins in derived editors, too. I expecte…

> You can use it as a FOSS editor, but only if you are willing to accept a vastly subpar experience. Why is this Microsoft's fault, though? Nothing is stopping the open source community from creating a more resilient extension distribution system.

The problem isn't the distribution system, it's the licenses on the flagship Microsoft extensions that provide C/C++, Python, Javascript/Typescript, etc. support. Those licenses are entirely Microsoft's fault.

Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#65

I'm sure some (many?) will disagree with me but: VSCode is Android. Or rather, VSCode's source is AOSP and the marketplace, plugins, etc are Google Play Services. I say that with maximum derision.

> VSCode is Android Yes, an open source project that creates immense value, but fails to fulfill some purist fantasy.

> Yes, an open source project that creates immense value, but fails to fulfill some purist fantasy.

Yes, a purist fantasy of an open source project that functions without closed source proprietary blobs.

Oh, the horror! Won't somebody think of the children!?

Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#66
post #8

Remember vs code is designed to fracture and the forks are an integral part of that. https://ghuntley.com/fracture/

Thanks for the share. Yeah, building upon VSCode (MIT) is a stupid idea. Regarding OpenVSX, it was developed whilst I was at Gitpod and transferred to the Eclipse Foundation. It's been many years now, so my memory might be a little dated as to what came first, but OpenVSX/Gitpod/Thiea/Eclipse origins can all be traced back to https://www.typefox.io/ . Anyway. OpenVSX is classic XKCD https://xkcd.com/2347/ territory—r…

Couple of years ago, I think openvsx faced funding crunch and on the verge of the shutdown a dedicated working group was formed (including big names like Google, Salesforce etc) to support it.

Not sure if this outage and its long duration is due to some technical difficulty or an indication of something worse.

Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#67
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My android phone doesn't have a working keyboard?

You use stock Android Open Source keyboard, not closed-sourced Gboard? Can you type in Chinese?

China doesn't uses Google services. Am sure they can type in Chinese.

Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (I was going to also say "or the OSS guys all unify behind a choice" but Hell will freeze over before that happens.) The editor war is going as strong as ever, emacs vs vim will still be here in 20 years. Compared to 10 years ago, the amount of people using emacs and vim only grew, although VSCode growth was 1000x faster.

I was watching the "Simple Made Easy" talk by Rick Hickey, and while he was talking more about programming languages, the talk could extend easily to editors and other type of tooling. People are always going for easy, not simple. Vim is very simple (a composable language for editing, straightforward integration with cli tools, easily extendable,...). Emacs is simple (Major mode that dictates main operations and disp…

People will opt for what's accessible. Vim requires you to learn an alien control scheme to even navigate through code, and Emacs requires you to learn an incredibly unique programming language — one that sees no real world use, let's be honest — for basic tasks. Is it any surprise, then, that Microsoft had no issue swooping in and dominating the editor market when Emacs and Vim users believe that these are "features"?

VSCode does a great job keeping the complexity away from the user. Vim and Emacs shove it in your face. I prefer VSCode's approach.

Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#69
post #54
post #12

I noticed this the other day when I installed VSCodium on my new Windows box. I had a functional setup for one day , then the next day I couldn't install a language extension I direly needed. It's left a very sour taste in my mouth. I've used Emacs for ages and despite being a much more niche editor, it's never been so hard-dependent on centralized repositories, and the centralized repositories it does have (ELPA/MEL…

Pointless was my thought after initially installing it years ago. Ok, I’m installing this open source “clean” version, just to install a bunch of MS proprietary spyware extensions? Why not just use the real thing?

Nowadays there are good alternatives to some of the proprietary Microsoft extensions, I use the basedpyright extension on VSCodium and prefer it to Microsoft's proprietary Pylance. I've also heard good things about the clangd extension as an alternative to the C/C++ extension.

Re: OpenVSX, which VSCode forks rely on for extensions, down for 24 hours

#70
post #19

There is not much to see on a server that is down, so let me share some free advice instead. Visit Eclipse Theia in the mean time when you are serious about de-risking from VSCode. I think VSCodium is doing an uphill battle here, while Microsoft can't help them self being a sales company first. In Theia, everything is open and free of spyware. MS is under no obligation to provide an OSS editor, but playing tricks aft…

> MS is under no obligation to provide an OSS editor, but playing tricks after luring people in is not nice. Microsoft is partly to blame, but people have been warning about this over and over and over ad nauseam and people still choose to use VSCode. You couldn't even get people to not use the proprietary extensions for C/C++, Python and remote development. The problem is that Microsoft dedicates enough resource to…

Genuinely curious, how did Microsoft "shoved it down everybody's throats"? And weren't Jetbrains, Eclipse, Vim, Emacs dominant enough(especially Jetbrains) to have done so before Microsoft?
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