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The Visual Studio Code version from the Insiders Program is now available as a native arm64 build for Windows 10. Owners of Surface Pro X can finally use a nati

The Visual Studio Code version from the Insiders Program is now available as a native arm64 build for Windows 10. Owners of Surface Pro X can finally use a native editor on the platform. Still this is still an electron-based editor and even in native arm64 it uses a lot of RAM. On my Surface Pro X, I just launched both VSCode compiled for ARM64 and Sublime Text compiled for ia32. VSCode is using about 300MB+ and Sublime Text (working under built-in ia32 emulation) is using 15MB. I’m happy to have native VSCode, not only because many people rely on that but because it means that Electron, NodeJS, and node-gyp must be working for Windows on ARM in a somewhat stable manner and that will open the doors for other applications to arrive in the platform soon (I hope). I know that most readers here are not keen on anything Microsoft related, I understand that and in many cases share the sentiment and views but there might be readers that got an SPX and were waiting for this release like I was. If you were running the insider preview compiled for ia32, it won’t automatically change to arm64, you’ll need to download again.

mattferderer 6y ago
Good thing Raspberry Pi now comes in 8GB models! https://www.engadget.com/raspberry-pi-4-now-available-with-up-to-8-gb-of-ram-095534737.html https://www.engadget.com/raspberry-pi-4-now-available-with-u... I kind of want to compare this to some older laptops I've been given before.
- msoad 6y ago
  Can you install Windows on Raspberry Pi?
  - qubex 6y ago
    Yes. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=55029 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=550...
    - pedrocx486 6y ago
      This is not "full" Windows 10, not even close. He means an full installation like what this can provide: https://github.com/WOA-Project/WOA-Deployer-Rpi https://github.com/WOA-Project/WOA-Deployer-Rpi
    - terramex 6y ago
      It does not work on Rpi 4 and it is not full Windows environment.
  - maxbaines 6y ago
    Yes for full Windows 10 see https://github.com/WOA-Project/WOA-Deployer-Rpi https://github.com/WOA-Project/WOA-Deployer-Rpi although targetted for RPi3 some success with 4 has been had but currently RAM is limited to 1Gb slightly less exciting.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago
    In addition to what the others have said, we've had good experience with Windows 10 IoT on Raspberry Pi 3B (a few dozen units deployed in daily use) for some sensor data capture applications. However, based on our experiences with the Pi 3B+ and Microsoft's promise to get an update out "real soon now" (probably over year late at this point), we've concluded that Microsoft is not serious about Windows on the Pi. So we decided to not do any more development on the RPi Win10 IoT platform, and move future development to .NET Core running on Linux which they seem far more enthusiastic about supporting.
maxbaines 6y ago
That reader is me, thanks.
ebg13 6y ago
> VSCode is using about 300MB+ and Sublime Text (working under built-in ia32 emulation) is using 15MB. On my mac VSCode sits at ~380MB without any files open, but opening one empty plaintext file brings that up to 460MB, opening one tiny Lua (a language known for being especially small and efficient) file makes that 500MB, and opening a second tiny Lua file makes that 535MB. Does Sublime increase like that?
- wbond 6y ago
  Ram usage will increase in Sublime Text as syntaxes are loaded into memory. The last time I checked on a Mac, loading every single default syntax would get you in the low 200MB range. A large part of that with the current stable builds is syntaxes that embed others - so Markdown fenced code blocks and LaTeX files. For simpler syntaxes you’ll see a much smaller jump in ram usage.
- revnode 6y ago
  There are advantages to having VSCode in Electron. I run VSCode as a web application on my server that I access remotely using a browser on a number of different machines. That instance has access to the file system on my server, allowing me to use any machine to do my work without installing anything. Try doing that with Sublime. Microsoft is leveraging this by allowing you to open up VSCode in Github for any file, no installation necessary. Amazon is doing the same with Cloud9 on AWS that they acquired earlier.
  - benologist 6y ago
    You don't actually need to install VSCode on the server - the SSH extension lets you use VSCode locally. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh
    - w0utert 6y ago
      That's useful, but I think the person you were replying to doesn't just use the host machine as a remote file system but also as a build host and to have a single workspace with all its settings available from any machine. I recently set this up as well using code-server [1], which works brilliantly. I have a VM running on a powerful hypervisor host, which has all the source code, the workspace configuration with all my customisations, build tasks, etc. Compilation is fully on the host side, which is a 12-core with 32GB memory, way beyond any of the computers I use as clients, and all I need to access it is an SSH connection to it. Code-server has a progressive web app mode that makes it pretty much indistinguishable from running a local installation. First time I have had to acknowledge it wasn't such a bad idea to implement VSCode as an Electron app to be honest. [1] https://github.com/cdr/code-server https://github.com/cdr/code-server
gre 6y ago
I can't seem to find the link, any help? The Insider win64 downloads are x64 only still at https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/ https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/
- soapdog 6y ago
  That issue link contains the links for download for many different versions. If you go to https://update.code.visualstudio.com/latest/win32-arm64-user/insider https://update.code.visualstudio.com/latest/win32-arm64-user... you'll get a direct download of it as well.
mehrdadn 6y ago
I feel like a dinosaur because a "native" app to me means pretty much the exact opposite of an electron app.
- soapdog 6y ago
  I totally agree with you there, buuut, before this release VSCode on a Surface Pro X would be Electron running as a ia32 emulated app, which is not only web technologies but also the wrong ISA. I'd love to have sublime text, textadept, or any other real native editor running under ARM64 on Windows but so far they are not available. This VSCode is the first editor shipping ARM64 binaries, even if Electron stuff. Also it is important to notice that many developers using that machine are using the ia32 version of VSCode and this version will benefit them (and it more native to the platform).
  - patagurbon 6y ago
    Is it not possible to compile editors like emacs or Sublime Text for ARM64? I know very little about native programming but surely GCC/Clang/Visual C++ have ARM64 compilation targets?
    - ryukafalz 6y ago
      It certainly is! Not sure what the situation is on Windows but Linux distros that have ARM versions typically have nearly all the same software that you’d expect on x86 in their repos. (I’m thinking of Debian in particular here, but I suspect others are similar.)
    - soapdog 6y ago
      It is a chicken and egg problem. Many languages do not yet support Windows on ARM, so you can't rely on them to build stuff for the new platform. For example there is no official release of NodeJS, Python, Ruby, Perl, on the platform. Lots of FOSS rely on gnu stuff which is usually compiled on windows using mingw/msys2/cygwin, all of which are not available for Windows on ARM. So you can't easily port stuff. You can run Visual Studio and cross-compile from ia32 to arm64 on a Surface Pro X but that is unsupported by Microsoft who wants you to have two machines, one running x64 and compiling stuff and another running arm64 and testing stuff. That is unreasonable for small independent developers. So until the development ecosystem is a bit better, porting stuff will still have a lot of friction and that is why for now, IMHO, every port needs to be cherished.

mattferderer 6y ago

Good thing Raspberry Pi now comes in 8GB models! https://www.engadget.com/raspberry-pi-4-now-available-with-up-to-8-gb-of-ram-095534737.html https://www.engadget.com/raspberry-pi-4-now-available-with-u... I kind of want to compare this to some older laptops I've been given before.

msoad 6y ago
Can you install Windows on Raspberry Pi?
- qubex 6y ago
  Yes. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=55029 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=550...
  - pedrocx486 6y ago
    This is not "full" Windows 10, not even close. He means an full installation like what this can provide: https://github.com/WOA-Project/WOA-Deployer-Rpi https://github.com/WOA-Project/WOA-Deployer-Rpi
  - terramex 6y ago
    It does not work on Rpi 4 and it is not full Windows environment.
- maxbaines 6y ago
  Yes for full Windows 10 see https://github.com/WOA-Project/WOA-Deployer-Rpi https://github.com/WOA-Project/WOA-Deployer-Rpi although targetted for RPi3 some success with 4 has been had but currently RAM is limited to 1Gb slightly less exciting.
- HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago
  In addition to what the others have said, we've had good experience with Windows 10 IoT on Raspberry Pi 3B (a few dozen units deployed in daily use) for some sensor data capture applications. However, based on our experiences with the Pi 3B+ and Microsoft's promise to get an update out "real soon now" (probably over year late at this point), we've concluded that Microsoft is not serious about Windows on the Pi. So we decided to not do any more development on the RPi Win10 IoT platform, and move future development to .NET Core running on Linux which they seem far more enthusiastic about supporting.

maxbaines 6y ago

That reader is me, thanks.

ebg13 6y ago

> VSCode is using about 300MB+ and Sublime Text (working under built-in ia32 emulation) is using 15MB. On my mac VSCode sits at ~380MB without any files open, but opening one empty plaintext file brings that up to 460MB, opening one tiny Lua (a language known for being especially small and efficient) file makes that 500MB, and opening a second tiny Lua file makes that 535MB. Does Sublime increase like that?

wbond 6y ago
Ram usage will increase in Sublime Text as syntaxes are loaded into memory. The last time I checked on a Mac, loading every single default syntax would get you in the low 200MB range. A large part of that with the current stable builds is syntaxes that embed others - so Markdown fenced code blocks and LaTeX files. For simpler syntaxes you’ll see a much smaller jump in ram usage.
revnode 6y ago
There are advantages to having VSCode in Electron. I run VSCode as a web application on my server that I access remotely using a browser on a number of different machines. That instance has access to the file system on my server, allowing me to use any machine to do my work without installing anything. Try doing that with Sublime. Microsoft is leveraging this by allowing you to open up VSCode in Github for any file, no installation necessary. Amazon is doing the same with Cloud9 on AWS that they acquired earlier.
- benologist 6y ago
  You don't actually need to install VSCode on the server - the SSH extension lets you use VSCode locally. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh
  - w0utert 6y ago
    That's useful, but I think the person you were replying to doesn't just use the host machine as a remote file system but also as a build host and to have a single workspace with all its settings available from any machine. I recently set this up as well using code-server [1], which works brilliantly. I have a VM running on a powerful hypervisor host, which has all the source code, the workspace configuration with all my customisations, build tasks, etc. Compilation is fully on the host side, which is a 12-core with 32GB memory, way beyond any of the computers I use as clients, and all I need to access it is an SSH connection to it. Code-server has a progressive web app mode that makes it pretty much indistinguishable from running a local installation. First time I have had to acknowledge it wasn't such a bad idea to implement VSCode as an Electron app to be honest. [1] https://github.com/cdr/code-server https://github.com/cdr/code-server

gre 6y ago

I can't seem to find the link, any help? The Insider win64 downloads are x64 only still at https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/ https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/

soapdog 6y ago
That issue link contains the links for download for many different versions. If you go to https://update.code.visualstudio.com/latest/win32-arm64-user/insider https://update.code.visualstudio.com/latest/win32-arm64-user... you'll get a direct download of it as well.

mehrdadn 6y ago

I feel like a dinosaur because a "native" app to me means pretty much the exact opposite of an electron app.

soapdog 6y ago
I totally agree with you there, buuut, before this release VSCode on a Surface Pro X would be Electron running as a ia32 emulated app, which is not only web technologies but also the wrong ISA. I'd love to have sublime text, textadept, or any other real native editor running under ARM64 on Windows but so far they are not available. This VSCode is the first editor shipping ARM64 binaries, even if Electron stuff. Also it is important to notice that many developers using that machine are using the ia32 version of VSCode and this version will benefit them (and it more native to the platform).
- patagurbon 6y ago
  Is it not possible to compile editors like emacs or Sublime Text for ARM64? I know very little about native programming but surely GCC/Clang/Visual C++ have ARM64 compilation targets?
  - ryukafalz 6y ago
    It certainly is! Not sure what the situation is on Windows but Linux distros that have ARM versions typically have nearly all the same software that you’d expect on x86 in their repos. (I’m thinking of Debian in particular here, but I suspect others are similar.)
  - soapdog 6y ago
    It is a chicken and egg problem. Many languages do not yet support Windows on ARM, so you can't rely on them to build stuff for the new platform. For example there is no official release of NodeJS, Python, Ruby, Perl, on the platform. Lots of FOSS rely on gnu stuff which is usually compiled on windows using mingw/msys2/cygwin, all of which are not available for Windows on ARM. So you can't easily port stuff. You can run Visual Studio and cross-compile from ia32 to arm64 on a Surface Pro X but that is unsupported by Microsoft who wants you to have two machines, one running x64 and compiling stuff and another running arm64 and testing stuff. That is unreasonable for small independent developers. So until the development ecosystem is a bit better, porting stuff will still have a lot of friction and that is why for now, IMHO, every port needs to be cherished.