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License says you aren't allowed to attempt to derive or reverse engineer the source code. So basically the code is available, but if you look at it you are viol

License says you aren't allowed to attempt to derive or reverse engineer the source code. So basically the code is available, but if you look at it you are violating the license. edit: binaries are under a restrictive license and code is not. So definitely don't use those binaries, as they are likely riddled with telemetry crap that isn't in the open source version.

api 8y ago
That sounds like two legal departments did not talk to each other.
mschuetz 8y ago
That restrictive license refers to the build, at best. The vscode source is under MIT at github, there is no need to reverse engineer the build and the license of the build won't affect the license of the source code.
- djsumdog 8y ago
  I mean, even Mozilla doesn't let you release binaries with Firefox or Thunderbird branding. Gentoo can get away with it because you're building/using it locally, but when Debain wanted to place Firefox into their package build system, they had to rename it Ice Weasel.
  - aoloe 8y ago
    That's not true. Mozilla did not want (even slightly) modified versions of Firefox or Thunderbird to be labelled as such. The issue has been solved and, currently, Debian has renamed its package back to Firefox. On top of it, this has probably nothing to do with this topic. (copyrights and branding being very different topics)
Waterluvian 8y ago
Hmmm. So the source is open and free. The compiled versions shall not be reversed. How can one validate that the compiled versions being provided are direct results of what's in the repo? Ie. Not a version with some bonus magic.
- deleted 8y ago
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- mschuetz 8y ago
  The chrome dev tools are right in there in vscode so you can take a look at what's executed. It's also hardly reverse engineering if the code is all there to look at, and even debuggable and modifyable at runtime. I fail to see any issues here.
  - holtalanm 8y ago
    good luck debugging and modifying the c++ code via the chrome dev tools.
    - smileybarry 8y ago
      You wouldn't need to since VSCode is written entirely in JavaScript/TypeScript.
      - true_religion 8y ago
        Just because something is written in Javascript, doesn't mean it doesn't include a binary. For example, sass-loader is/was dependent on node-sass which is a binary install. Lots of file utilities on NPM are similarly reliant on C code that may only compile on your machine correctly if you are lucky.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

api 8y ago

That sounds like two legal departments did not talk to each other.

mschuetz 8y ago

That restrictive license refers to the build, at best. The vscode source is under MIT at github, there is no need to reverse engineer the build and the license of the build won't affect the license of the source code.

djsumdog 8y ago
I mean, even Mozilla doesn't let you release binaries with Firefox or Thunderbird branding. Gentoo can get away with it because you're building/using it locally, but when Debain wanted to place Firefox into their package build system, they had to rename it Ice Weasel.
- aoloe 8y ago
  That's not true. Mozilla did not want (even slightly) modified versions of Firefox or Thunderbird to be labelled as such. The issue has been solved and, currently, Debian has renamed its package back to Firefox. On top of it, this has probably nothing to do with this topic. (copyrights and branding being very different topics)

Waterluvian 8y ago

Hmmm. So the source is open and free. The compiled versions shall not be reversed. How can one validate that the compiled versions being provided are direct results of what's in the repo? Ie. Not a version with some bonus magic.

deleted 8y ago
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mschuetz 8y ago
The chrome dev tools are right in there in vscode so you can take a look at what's executed. It's also hardly reverse engineering if the code is all there to look at, and even debuggable and modifyable at runtime. I fail to see any issues here.
- holtalanm 8y ago
  good luck debugging and modifying the c++ code via the chrome dev tools.
  - smileybarry 8y ago
    You wouldn't need to since VSCode is written entirely in JavaScript/TypeScript.
    - true_religion 8y ago
      Just because something is written in Javascript, doesn't mean it doesn't include a binary. For example, sass-loader is/was dependent on node-sass which is a binary install. Lots of file utilities on NPM are similarly reliant on C code that may only compile on your machine correctly if you are lucky.
deleted 8y ago
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