VSCode Open Source Debate

Cluster centers on debates about whether Microsoft's VSCode is truly open source, citing telemetry, proprietary extensions (e.g., Python, Remote SSH), marketplace restrictions, and the VSCodium fork as a purer open source alternative.

➡️ Stable 0.8x Open Source
2,332
Comments
16
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#8301
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

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Keywords

MS FOSS OSS gitsense.com visualstudio.co MIT VSC HN JetBrains stackexchange.com vscode open source vs code source open extensions microsoft ms code vs

Sample Comments

Totoradio Jun 4, 2018 View on HN

VsCode is open source too: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode

michannne Sep 23, 2020 View on HN

You do realize VSCode is open-source?

alejoar Oct 12, 2022 View on HN

VSCode is open source and you are free to alter it (MIT license), removing those parts that you say Microsoft is using to "charge" you. Or just use vscodium.

avinassh Dec 17, 2022 View on HN

VS Code is not really open source.https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/4288/is-micro...https://code.visualstudio.co

booi Mar 27, 2022 View on HN

The vast majority of vscode is opensource actually. I'm unaware of any major feature that is not part of their OSS project.https://vscodium.com/

formerly_proven Dec 25, 2021 View on HN

VSCode is not fully open source, either.

msm_ Feb 10, 2023 View on HN

Isn't vscode open-source? I'm using vscodium with all MS links removed, I don't think MS can charge licenses for that.

Angeo34 Mar 31, 2020 View on HN

vscode isn't open source it's proprietary Microsoft. only "code oss" is.

asddubs Oct 24, 2021 View on HN

vscode is heavily marketed as open source, not open core. yet key microsoft extensions are closed, as people are often surprised to find out

infamia May 24, 2025 View on HN

VSCode's marketing was that it is an open source editor you could rely upon, complete with open source extensions for popular languages like Python. Then when once it became popular and vscodium was growing in popularity (a vscode fork), MS locked things down. Now the Python extensions are closed source, and MS has artificially prevented vscode forks from using those extensions. A bait and switch if I've ever seen one.