vscodium README

The project's README from github.com/VSCodium/vscodium. As one markdown file: README.md.

current release license Gitter codium codium

This is not a fork. This is a repository of scripts to automatically build Microsoft's vscode repository into freely-licensed binaries with a community-driven default configuration.

Table of Contents

Download/Install

:tada: :tada: Download latest release here: stable or insiders :tada: :tada:

More info / helpful tips are here.

Install with Brew (Mac)

If you are on a Mac and have Homebrew installed:

# stable
brew install --cask vscodium

# insiders
brew install --cask vscodium@insiders

Install with Windows Package Manager (WinGet)

If you use Windows and have Windows Package Manager installed:

:: stable
winget install -e --id VSCodium.VSCodium

:: insider
winget install -e --id VSCodium.VSCodium.Insiders

Install with Chocolatey (Windows)

If you use Windows and have Chocolatey installed (thanks to @Thilas):

:: stable
choco install vscodium

:: insider
choco install vscodium-insiders

Install with Scoop (Windows)

If you use Windows and have Scoop installed:

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install vscodium

Install with snap (GNU/Linux)

VSCodium is available in the Snap Store as Codium, thanks to the help of the Snapcrafters community. If your GNU/Linux distribution has support for snaps:

snap install codium --classic

Install with Package Manager (GNU/Linux)

You can always install using the downloads (deb, rpm, tar) on the releases page for stable or insiders, but you can also install using your favorite package manager and get automatic updates.

@paulcarroty has set up a repository with instructions for apt, dnf and zypper here.

Any issues installing VSCodium using your package manager should be directed to that repository's issue tracker.

Install on Arch Linux

VSCodium is available in AUR, maintained by @binex-dsk as package vscodium-bin (stable) and as vscodium-insiders-bin.

If you want to save disk space by having VSCodium use the Electron system-wide, you also have vscodium-electron, maintained by @m00nw4tch3r.

An alternative package vscodium-git, maintained by @cedricroijakkers, is also available should you wish to compile from source yourself.

Flatpak Option (GNU/Linux)

VSCodium is available as a Flatpak app here and the build repo is here. If your distribution has support for flatpak, and you have enabled the flathub repo:

flatpak install flathub com.vscodium.codium
flatpak run com.vscodium.codium

Build

Build instructions can be found here

Why Does This Exist

This repository contains build files to generate free release binaries of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code. When we speak of "free software", we're talking about freedom, not price.

Microsoft's releases of Visual Studio Code are licensed under this not-FLOSS license and contain telemetry/tracking. According to this comment from a Visual Studio 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

This repo exists so that you don't have to download+build from source. The build scripts in this repo clone Microsoft's vscode repo, run the build commands, and upload the resulting binaries to GitHub releases. These binaries are licensed under the MIT license. Telemetry is disabled.

If you want to build from source yourself, head over to Microsoft's vscode repo and follow their instructions. This repo exists to make it easier to get the latest version of MIT-licensed Visual Studio Code.

Microsoft's build process (which we are running to build the binaries) does download additional files. Those packages downloaded during build are:

More Info

Documentation

For more information on getting all the telemetry disabled, tips for migrating from Visual Studio Code to VSCodium and more, have a look at the Docs page page.

Troubleshooting

If you have any issue, please check the Troubleshooting page or the existing issues.

Extensions and the Marketplace

According to the Visual Studio Marketplace Terms of Use, you may only install and use Marketplace Offerings with Visual Studio Products and Services. For this reason, VSCodium uses open-vsx.org, an open source registry for Visual Studio Code extensions. See the Extensions + Marketplace section on the Docs page for more details.

Please note that some Visual Studio Code extensions have licenses that restrict their use to the official Visual Studio Code builds and therefore do not work with VSCodium. See this note on the Docs page for what's been found so far and possible workarounds.

How are the VSCodium binaries built?

If you would like to see the commands we run to build vscode into VSCodium binaries, have a look at the workflow files in .github/workflows for Windows, GNU/Linux and macOS. These build files call all the other scripts in the repo. If you find something that doesn't make sense, feel free to ask about it on Gitter.

The builds are run every day, but exit early if there isn't a new release from Microsoft.

Supported Platforms

The minimal version is limited by the core component Electron, you may want to check its platform prerequisites.

Previously Supported Platforms

Special thanks

@jaredreich for the logo
@PalinuroSec for CDN and domain name
MacStadium logo for providing a Mac mini M1
@daiyam for macOS certificate
SignPath logo free code signing on Windows provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation

License

MIT

vscodium (VSCodium/vscodium)

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33.7K ·GitHub
Vscodium
What is this?VSCodium is freely-licensed binaries of Visual Studio Code: automated build scripts turn Microsoft's own vscode repository into MIT-licensed builds with telemetry disabled and no Microsoft branding.
Is it a fork of VS Code?No. The repo only contains build scripts: Microsoft builds VS Code by overlaying a custom product.json on the same source, while VSCodium ships that clean build without the Microsoft-specific endpoints.
Can I install extensions from the VS Code Marketplace?Not all of them. Marketplace terms restrict offerings to official VS Code products, so VSCodium uses the open-vsx.org registry, and some extensions licensed for official builds only will not work.
Which platforms does it run on?macOS 12 or newer (x64 and arm64), Windows 10 or Server 2012 R2 and newer (x64 and arm64), and GNU/Linux on x64, arm64, riscv64, loong64 and ppc64le — as deb, rpm, AppImage, snap, tar.gz, zip/dmg and Flatpak.
Is telemetry completely off out of the box?The shipped binaries come with telemetry disabled, and the Docs page explains getting any remaining telemetry turned off, plus tips for migrating from Visual Studio Code to VSCodium.
What's different from the official VS Code download?Microsoft's builds carry a not-FLOSS license and telemetry/tracking; VSCodium binaries are MIT-licensed with telemetry disabled — same editor, freer license, no tracking.
How quickly do new VS Code releases get built?Build scripts run every day and publish binaries whenever Microsoft ships a new release; if there is nothing new upstream, the build exits early — so VSCodium stays in lockstep with official VS Code releases.
Are the Windows binaries code-signed?Yes — free code signing on Windows is provided by SignPath.io with a certificate from the SignPath Foundation, and the macOS builds are signed with a certificate from @daiyam.
What are similar projects?toast, edit, LightTable, CodeEdit, vscode, lapce, atom, Vim
Which topics is it in?chocolatey, winget, code-editor, flatpak, text-editor, ide, vscode, homebrew, editor, electron, shell, desktop
Creator
VSCodium
Size
34.4 MB
Stars
33.7K
Updated
CommitOct 13Release1.140.06880Oct 13
Age
8y
Commits · 90 Days