VSCodium is a free open source version of VS code. In this article we will see its features and what makes it different from VS code editor.
The License
VS Codium is licensed under MIT license. Microsoft’s VS code’s source code is opensource (MIT) but the product available for download is not FLOSS(Free-Libre / Open Source Software) license and it contains telemetry and tracking.
So what is the problem with VS Code?
According to the comment from the VS Code maintainer :
“When we [Microsoft] build Visual Studio Code, we do exactly this. We clone the vscode repository, we lay down a customized product.json that has Microsoft specific functionality (telemetry, gallery, logo, etc.), and then produce a build that we release under our license.
When you clone and build from the vscode repo, none of these endpoints are configured in the default product.json. Therefore, you generate a “clean” build, without the Microsoft customizations, which is by default licensed under the MIT license”
VSCodium focus on the clean build of vscode without Microsoft’s product customizations. It has all the base features of VS Code.
VSCodium – Telemetry disabled
VSCodium builds are MIT licensed. Telemetry/tracking disabled for VSCodium builds.
VSCodium installation
Install with Chocolatey (Windows)
choco install vscodiumIf you use Windows and have Windows Package Manager installed:
winget install vscodiumInstall with snap (Linux)
snap install codium --classicConclusion
In conclusion, if you prefer to use open source vscode without telemetry/tracking then we would recommend VSCodium. One thing to note that VSCodium has separate extension manager repository.