5 ms·

A real question, not for flaming but just for understand: is free as in beer or in freedom? I mean, is it also open-source?

by yulaow 12y ago

jeffcox 12y ago
Looks like it's just free as in beer for now. Who knows what will happen a few months/years from now when it doesn't have a huge userbase and Microsoft isn't interested in continuing to support it alone.
- icey 12y ago
  I don't think it would be shocking to see it open sourced. Microsoft has been making a lot of changes on this front: http://microsoft.github.io/ http://microsoft.github.io/.
  - tracker1 12y ago
    Yeah, and while I appreciate their efforts... I find their documentation on their Azure clients for node.js too sparse and inconsistent. It can definitely be better, at least now I can look through their codebase to get what I need.
    - icey 11y ago
      The good news is they seem to be accepting Pull Requests for updates to their documentation (along with everything else): https://github.com/Azure/azure-storage-node/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed https://github.com/Azure/azure-storage-node/pulls?q=is%3Apr+... I know that doesn't help you when you need to consume the docs, but at the very least they're allowing the community to help out (finally).
micampe 12y ago
When most companies say free they mean free of charge, if they want to say open source they say open source, because that’s the term the world understands. Basically only the FSF uses free to mean Free Software.
- joshuapants 12y ago
  Open source doesn't imply free (or libre, if you prefer)
  - clarry 12y ago
    It pretty much always does.
    - joshuapants 12y ago
      Microsoft in particular has a history of using "shared source" licenses that are not free.
    - davexunit 12y ago
      Many companies use "open source" or simply "open" in a way that isn't compatible with the open source definition. This is known as open washing. A good, non-Microsoft example is Epic Games and Unreal Tournament 4. They talk a lot about being "open", but the source code and assets are all proprietary.
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
      - nailer 11y ago
        Neither Epic (I've contributed to UE) or Microsoft assert their products are Open Source, merely 'open'.
        davexunit 11y ago
        And they do that explicitly to confuse people. What they do isn't open, it's smoke and mirrors.
        nailer 11y ago
        Actually I think only MS say open. Epic says free.
keithwarren 12y ago
This looks like it is based on OmniSharp which is open source https://github.com/omnisharp https://github.com/omnisharp
davexunit 12y ago
It's free as in beer only. Please do not use it if you care about software freedom, and urge Microsoft to respect you by releasing the source code under a free license.
- th0ma5 12y ago
  Not sure why this comment is getting a down vote, this is a very important issue. I understand a lot of startups get money from Microsoft, and a lot more use their products, but that doesn't make this less of an issue.
  - th0ma5 12y ago
    Down votes for pointing this out? Must be Microsoft employees or partners. Wish HN had a way of filtering votes given the source domain. I have the karma, but the chilling effect on new users could be nontrivial.
    - JustSomeNobody 12y ago
      Most likely just turds hating. Your points weren't controversial, so I gave you an up.
shankun 12y ago
Visual Studio Code is already built on top of a number of open source projects we've created or are contributing to, including the Roslyn compiler and language tools, OmniSharp, Typescript, and GitHub Electron. We are still in an early stage and we're evolving our architecture - and we'll look at what we open source, and how we do it, as part of that.
- teen 11y ago
  is there any way to attach the debugger to an existing node process instead of launching one separately?

A real question, not for flaming but just for understand: is free as in beer or in freedom? I mean, is it also open-source?

by yulaow 12y ago

A real question, not for flaming but just for understand: is free as in beer or in freedom? I mean, is it also open-source?

jeffcox 12y ago

Looks like it's just free as in beer for now. Who knows what will happen a few months/years from now when it doesn't have a huge userbase and Microsoft isn't interested in continuing to support it alone.

icey 12y ago
I don't think it would be shocking to see it open sourced. Microsoft has been making a lot of changes on this front: http://microsoft.github.io/ http://microsoft.github.io/.
- tracker1 12y ago
  Yeah, and while I appreciate their efforts... I find their documentation on their Azure clients for node.js too sparse and inconsistent. It can definitely be better, at least now I can look through their codebase to get what I need.
  - icey 11y ago
    The good news is they seem to be accepting Pull Requests for updates to their documentation (along with everything else): https://github.com/Azure/azure-storage-node/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed https://github.com/Azure/azure-storage-node/pulls?q=is%3Apr+... I know that doesn't help you when you need to consume the docs, but at the very least they're allowing the community to help out (finally).

micampe 12y ago

When most companies say free they mean free of charge, if they want to say open source they say open source, because that’s the term the world understands. Basically only the FSF uses free to mean Free Software.

joshuapants 12y ago
Open source doesn't imply free (or libre, if you prefer)
- clarry 12y ago
  It pretty much always does.
  - joshuapants 12y ago
    Microsoft in particular has a history of using "shared source" licenses that are not free.
  - davexunit 12y ago
    Many companies use "open source" or simply "open" in a way that isn't compatible with the open source definition. This is known as open washing. A good, non-Microsoft example is Epic Games and Unreal Tournament 4. They talk a lot about being "open", but the source code and assets are all proprietary.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - nailer 11y ago
      Neither Epic (I've contributed to UE) or Microsoft assert their products are Open Source, merely 'open'.
      - davexunit 11y ago
        And they do that explicitly to confuse people. What they do isn't open, it's smoke and mirrors.
        nailer 11y ago
        Actually I think only MS say open. Epic says free.

keithwarren 12y ago

This looks like it is based on OmniSharp which is open source https://github.com/omnisharp https://github.com/omnisharp

davexunit 12y ago

It's free as in beer only. Please do not use it if you care about software freedom, and urge Microsoft to respect you by releasing the source code under a free license.

th0ma5 12y ago
Not sure why this comment is getting a down vote, this is a very important issue. I understand a lot of startups get money from Microsoft, and a lot more use their products, but that doesn't make this less of an issue.
- th0ma5 12y ago
  Down votes for pointing this out? Must be Microsoft employees or partners. Wish HN had a way of filtering votes given the source domain. I have the karma, but the chilling effect on new users could be nontrivial.
  - JustSomeNobody 12y ago
    Most likely just turds hating. Your points weren't controversial, so I gave you an up.

shankun 12y ago

Visual Studio Code is already built on top of a number of open source projects we've created or are contributing to, including the Roslyn compiler and language tools, OmniSharp, Typescript, and GitHub Electron. We are still in an early stage and we're evolving our architecture - and we'll look at what we open source, and how we do it, as part of that.

teen 11y ago
is there any way to attach the debugger to an existing node process instead of launching one separately?