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vscode is open source but many of the most interesting features are proprietary, making the use of anything but the official build impossible for many use cases
by dmm 5y ago
vscode is open source but many of the most interesting features are proprietary, making the use of anything but the official build impossible for many use cases.
A few weeks ago I investigated using an embedded version of vscode to create containerized dev environments for an internal developer platform we're working on. The hope was to allow devs to write and debug code from inside a k8s container by using vscode inside their browser. Very similar to the newly announced codespaces feature.
Unfortunately, there were several factors that made this impractical. The extension marketplace can only be used with the official build. There are at least two alternatives but both were missing extensions that our devs used. Also, the c# debugger is proprietary and only works with official vscode build.
From that experience I believe that while the core editor features of vscode are open source, "Visual Studio Code" the tool that people actually use is defacto proprietary and entirely controlled by Microsoft.
- user-the-name 5y agoNone of which has anything to do with "embrace, extend, extinguish". That just means they are not wanting to fully commit to open sourcing their own editor.
- CRConrad 5y agoIt has everything to do with it. Their open-sourcing stuff is just the modern form of the "embrace", and that open-sourcing being only partial is the very epitome of "extend". The "extinguish" is obviously yet to come, but turning a blind eye to it certainly won't help stave it off. And trying to fog others' vision to it is... Less than a good look.