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How do you know the only thing they change is the configuration? Unless you're internal to Microsoft, there's not really a way to know. Obscured telemetry has b
by _bxg1 8y ago
How do you know the only thing they change is the configuration? Unless you're internal to Microsoft, there's not really a way to know. Obscured telemetry has been a running problem with Microsoft in recent years, so it's understandable that people would be suspicious of hidden changes to an application advertised as open-source.
- ocdtrekkie 8y agoI mean, decompiling the app is likely not hard. ILSpy is a thing, and you can even compare against a decompiled open source version. FUD about "obscured telemetry" isn't worth much here either: They specifically have a telemetry URL in the configuration file, and they not only specify that they set it in the thread, but they instruct you on how you can verify the configuration's contents on the proprietary version. Telemetry exists in VSCode, but the code is open source, and you can inspect it to your heart's content. Here: Here's how it works. When you build from the vscode repository, you can configure the resulting tool by customizing the product.json file. This file controls things like the Gallery endpoints, “Send-a-Smile” endpoints, telemetry endpoints, logos, names, and more. When we build Visual Studio Code, we do exactly this. We clone the vscode repository, we lay down a customized product.json that has Microsoft specific functionality (telemetry, gallery, logo, etc.), and then produce a build that we release under our license. And: You can look at the product.json that is installed with the Visual Studio Code product to see what we configure. Willing to bet if the product.json is easily visible in the compiled version, you can even adjust it to work like the open source version if you'd like, by removing the telemetry URL.