I'm not clear on how this will make things easier. The default "environments" are just docker container defined in this repo: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscod

I'm not clear on how this will make things easier. The default "environments" are just docker container defined in this repo: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-dev-containers/ https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-dev-containers/ except that you can leave them suspended when not using them. (For the non-GitHub version this is literally a VM provisioned by way of running a single pre-specified docker container. Suspending is presumably just suspending the whole VM. In the beta the GitHub branded version will not persist processes, so it would be more like stopping the VM when not in use rather than just suspending it.) As for the pricing, it will likely be in the same ballpark as the non-github branded version of this exact same service (modulo any included time with a paid github subscription): https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/visual-studio-online/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/visual-stu... The estimated costs for full time development for one user with only one environment is ~$23.30/month. Each environment you leave in a suspended state for a whole month would cost $6.40. OF course, if you are willing to have your filesystem wiped and rebuild each time you start and stop coding, you can destroy the environments when not in use, in which case you will probably want to create a custom dockerfile to customize the environment.