4 ms·

It is true that VS Code has some non-optional telemetry, and if VS Codium works for people, that is great. However, the telemetry of VSCode is non-personal metr

It is true that VS Code has some non-optional telemetry, and if VS Codium works for people, that is great. However, the telemetry of VSCode is non-personal metrics, and some of the most popular extensions are only available with VSCode, not with Codium.

wkat4242 2y ago
> and some of the most popular extensions are only available with VSCode, not with Codium Which is an artificial restriction from MS that's really easily bypassed. Personally I don't care whether the telemetry is identifiable. I just don't want it.
- noman-land 2y ago
  How is it bypassed?
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    There's a whitelist identifier that you can add bundle IDs to, to get access to the more sensitive APIs. Then you can download the extension file and install it manually. I don't have the exact process right now but just Google it :)
    - arcanemachiner 2y ago
      Good to know. I never got too far with VSCodium because of this limitation.
    - jjnoakes 2y ago
      It is not just a technical limitation, it is a license limitation too, for what it is worth.
  - eMPee584 2y ago
    To switch the extension market place to the non-free one, some URLs need to be swapped in a product.JSON file, as in this script: https://github.com/fsfw-dresden/usb-live-linux/commit/3e4fd49cf2f474d39ad4e2afe53e62747418dc25 https://github.com/fsfw-dresden/usb-live-linux/commit/3e4fd4...
qwezxcrty 2y ago
From the documentation (https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/telemetry https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/telemetry ) it seems there is a supported way to completely turn off telemetry. Is there something else in VSCode that doesn't respect this setting?
- lr1970 2y ago
  From the documentation you linked above: > extensions may be collecting their own usage data and are not controlled by the telemetry.telemetryLevel setting. Consult the specific extension's documentation to learn about its telemetry reporting and whether it can be disabled.
- ENGNR 2y ago
  That's new. Previously there was a setting, but they removed it, and it would even throw a warning in settings.json that the property no longer existed. They must have reintroduced the telemetry setting. I can't remember if I deleted the old one, but my setting on that new value was set to "all" by default.
metadat 2y ago
Not allowing end-users to disable telemetry is actually awful. The gold standard is that IP addresses are considered personally identifiable information.
poincaredisk 2y ago
>the telemetry of VSCode is non-personal metrics But I don't want it. I want my software to work for me, not against me. >and some of the most popular extensions are only available with VSCode, not with Codium. I'll manage without them. What's especially annoying is that this restriction is completely artificial. Having said that, MS did a great job with VsCode and I applaud them for that. I guess nothing is perfect, and I bet these decisions were made by suits against engineer wishes.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- neoberg 2y ago
  > But I don't want it. I want my software to work for me, not against me. How is said software working "against" you by collecint non-personal telemetry while purpose of that telemetry usually is making the software better for most users?
  - tripzilch 2y ago
    Software did absolutely not get any better after corporations started adding telemetry to their software. Point in case: Software actually got worse. Second point in case: Great software and editors have been built without telemetry for decades.
  - noman-land 2y ago
    You just need to swap out some nouns and the offense will become more obvious. "How is that chair working 'against' you by collecting 'non-personal' sitting patterns tagged with timestamps and information about the chair and house that it's in while the purpose of that data collection 'usually' is making the chair better for other people?" When I use a product, I'm not implicitly inviting the makers of that product to perpetually monitor my usage of the product so that they can make more money based on my data. In any other part of life other than software, this would be an obscene assumption for a product maker to make. But in software, people give it a pass. No. This type of data collection is obscene when informed consent is not clearly and authoritatively acquired in advance.
jaggederest 2y ago
> However, the telemetry of VSCode is non-personal metrics, We know from the body of work in deobfuscation that there's no such thing as "strictly anonymous metrics".
SoothingSorbet 2y ago
> However, the telemetry of VSCode is non-personal metrics I don't care, I don't want my text editor to send _any_ telemetry, _especially_ without my explicit consent. > some of the most popular extensions are only available with VSCode This has never been an issue for me, fortunately. The only issue is Microsoft's proprietary extensions, which I have no interest in using either. If I wanted a proprietary editor I'd use something better.
- aftbit 2y ago
  I dropped VSCode when I found out that the remote editing and language server extensions were both proprietary. Back to vim and sorry I strayed.
  - all2 2y ago
    Jetbrains is pretty ok on this front. I've been enjoying using my beefy computer to do work from my potato laptop.
    - prometheon1 2y ago
      The way I read it, the message you replied to was a complaint about parts of VSCode being proprietary. Do you mean to say Jetbrains is pretty ok on the "not being proprietary" front?
      - aftbit 2y ago
        Yeah, 100%. I'm not a hardcore FOSS only person, but for my core workflow, when a FOSS tool exists and works well, I am not likely to use a proprietary alternative if I can avoid it at all. So yeah, I'll use Excel to interoperate with fancy spreadsheets, but if LibreOffice will do the job, I'll use it instead. I tried out several of the fancy proprietary editors at various times (SublimeText, VSCode, even Jetbrains), but IMO they were not better _enough_ to justify switching away from something like vim, which is both ubiquitously available and FOSS.
  - causal 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

wkat4242 2y ago

> and some of the most popular extensions are only available with VSCode, not with Codium Which is an artificial restriction from MS that's really easily bypassed. Personally I don't care whether the telemetry is identifiable. I just don't want it.

noman-land 2y ago
How is it bypassed?
- wkat4242 2y ago
  There's a whitelist identifier that you can add bundle IDs to, to get access to the more sensitive APIs. Then you can download the extension file and install it manually. I don't have the exact process right now but just Google it :)
  - arcanemachiner 2y ago
    Good to know. I never got too far with VSCodium because of this limitation.
  - jjnoakes 2y ago
    It is not just a technical limitation, it is a license limitation too, for what it is worth.
- eMPee584 2y ago
  To switch the extension market place to the non-free one, some URLs need to be swapped in a product.JSON file, as in this script: https://github.com/fsfw-dresden/usb-live-linux/commit/3e4fd49cf2f474d39ad4e2afe53e62747418dc25 https://github.com/fsfw-dresden/usb-live-linux/commit/3e4fd4...

qwezxcrty 2y ago

From the documentation (https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/telemetry https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/telemetry ) it seems there is a supported way to completely turn off telemetry. Is there something else in VSCode that doesn't respect this setting?

lr1970 2y ago
From the documentation you linked above: > extensions may be collecting their own usage data and are not controlled by the telemetry.telemetryLevel setting. Consult the specific extension's documentation to learn about its telemetry reporting and whether it can be disabled.
ENGNR 2y ago
That's new. Previously there was a setting, but they removed it, and it would even throw a warning in settings.json that the property no longer existed. They must have reintroduced the telemetry setting. I can't remember if I deleted the old one, but my setting on that new value was set to "all" by default.

metadat 2y ago

Not allowing end-users to disable telemetry is actually awful. The gold standard is that IP addresses are considered personally identifiable information.

poincaredisk 2y ago

>the telemetry of VSCode is non-personal metrics But I don't want it. I want my software to work for me, not against me. >and some of the most popular extensions are only available with VSCode, not with Codium. I'll manage without them. What's especially annoying is that this restriction is completely artificial. Having said that, MS did a great job with VsCode and I applaud them for that. I guess nothing is perfect, and I bet these decisions were made by suits against engineer wishes.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
neoberg 2y ago
> But I don't want it. I want my software to work for me, not against me. How is said software working "against" you by collecint non-personal telemetry while purpose of that telemetry usually is making the software better for most users?
- tripzilch 2y ago
  Software did absolutely not get any better after corporations started adding telemetry to their software. Point in case: Software actually got worse. Second point in case: Great software and editors have been built without telemetry for decades.
- noman-land 2y ago
  You just need to swap out some nouns and the offense will become more obvious. "How is that chair working 'against' you by collecting 'non-personal' sitting patterns tagged with timestamps and information about the chair and house that it's in while the purpose of that data collection 'usually' is making the chair better for other people?" When I use a product, I'm not implicitly inviting the makers of that product to perpetually monitor my usage of the product so that they can make more money based on my data. In any other part of life other than software, this would be an obscene assumption for a product maker to make. But in software, people give it a pass. No. This type of data collection is obscene when informed consent is not clearly and authoritatively acquired in advance.

jaggederest 2y ago

> However, the telemetry of VSCode is non-personal metrics, We know from the body of work in deobfuscation that there's no such thing as "strictly anonymous metrics".

SoothingSorbet 2y ago

> However, the telemetry of VSCode is non-personal metrics I don't care, I don't want my text editor to send _any_ telemetry, _especially_ without my explicit consent. > some of the most popular extensions are only available with VSCode This has never been an issue for me, fortunately. The only issue is Microsoft's proprietary extensions, which I have no interest in using either. If I wanted a proprietary editor I'd use something better.

aftbit 2y ago
I dropped VSCode when I found out that the remote editing and language server extensions were both proprietary. Back to vim and sorry I strayed.
- all2 2y ago
  Jetbrains is pretty ok on this front. I've been enjoying using my beefy computer to do work from my potato laptop.
  - prometheon1 2y ago
    The way I read it, the message you replied to was a complaint about parts of VSCode being proprietary. Do you mean to say Jetbrains is pretty ok on the "not being proprietary" front?
    - aftbit 2y ago
      Yeah, 100%. I'm not a hardcore FOSS only person, but for my core workflow, when a FOSS tool exists and works well, I am not likely to use a proprietary alternative if I can avoid it at all. So yeah, I'll use Excel to interoperate with fancy spreadsheets, but if LibreOffice will do the job, I'll use it instead. I tried out several of the fancy proprietary editors at various times (SublimeText, VSCode, even Jetbrains), but IMO they were not better _enough_ to justify switching away from something like vim, which is both ubiquitously available and FOSS.
- causal 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

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