I’ll switch from VS Code to VS Codium

I’ve been using VS Code in recent years. At first, I developed online through Brakkets, then switched to Atom, and finally VS Code. In my opinion, VS Code is a good editor. It has improved since its release. But starting this month, I’ll switch from VS Code to VS Codium, so allow me to explain.

VS Codium Official Website-

Is VS Code open source?

VS Code, released by Microsoft, is not open source software. The VS Code Editor adopts an open core model in which the core of the editor is developed as an open source project, and the source code of VS Code is open source under the MIT license.

However, Microsoft uses this core and modifies it, including telemetry tracking, and releases it as a proprietary version, which has its own license, rather than the FOSS license, and is different from the MIT license.

This is similar to the Chrome browser, which has at its core “Chromium,” an open source browser developed and released under an open source software license. Google then modified it, adding Google’s proprietary services and publishing Chrome as a standalone browser.

What is vs Code’s proprietary?

Microsoft modified VS Code in such a way that non-Microsoft VS Code branches cannot use extensions of the official Microsoft VS Code Store. Not only that, but some VS Code extensions developed and released by Microsoft can only run in VS Code released by Microsoft, not in non-Microsoft VS Code branches.

There is nothing wrong with a business following the principles of an open core. Microsoft still needs to pay for developers who contribute to VS Code, as well as with VS Code and the Running Extension Store.

Why should I switch to VS Codium?

If you want to get a fully open source VS Code licensed by MIT and don’t require telemetry tracking, you have to download the source code from the repository and build your own VS Code.

For most users, building VS Code from source is difficult.

That’s why VS Codium came along.

VS Codium is a completely open source version of VS Code with no constraints and tracking from Microsoft VS Code. The VS Codium team builds VS Code from source code and releases builds for different platforms under the name VS Codium.

I want to skip all the traces that come with VS Code. I’m growing unhappy with their extension market, where more and more extensions are starting to sell our free-to-use pro versions of extensions.

My experience with VS Codium

Although I’ve known about VS Codium before, the only thing that makes me reluctant to switch is the lack of availability of all the extensions I’ve used to customize my VS Code experience.

But the vs COdium extension ecosystem has matured, and almost all of VS Code’s open source extensions can now be used with VS Codium under the open-vsx extension market.

These extensions are uploaded by the official developers or community. Now that the extension I’m using is available in VS Codium, I’ve made a smooth transition to VS Codium and there’s nothing to complain about.

The only thing I miss is the “Monokai Pro” theme I used on VS Code, but I found a new favorite “Blackboard Pro” on the Open VSX registry (it’s free).

Open the VS Code Extension Registry. You can download all popular VS Code extensions from the Open VSX registry.

How do I install VS Codium?

The easiest way to install VS Codium is through package management, which is available for your operating system.

macOs users

Linux Ubuntu users

After installation VS Codium. I installed the Blackboard pro theme.

Performance improvements

In terms of performance, I don’t see a noticeable change, perhaps because both my MBP and my Windows machine have enough specs to run VS Codium and VS Code Smoothly, but I’m sure there’s a small performance boost because telemetry isn’t running in the background to send data to Microsoft.

If you’re a vs Code user, I suggest you try VS Codium to see if it works for you too.