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Historically, when you build VSCode from source the telemetry and proprietary elements that Microsoft adds to the binaries are not included.
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The first option is to build VSCode from the open source MIT licensed source code hosted on GitHub. Is there any way to use VSCode without Microsoft’s proprietary elements and telemetry? As it turns out, there are two options. Additionally, the possibility remains that a future update could reactivate the telemetry. Although it is possible to disable the telemetry, simply opening the application to do so may send telemetry to Microsoft because it is activated by default. According to Microsoft’s privacy statement, this telemetry is also shared with their affiliates and subsidiaries. These official binary versions of VSCode have proprietary elements and built in Microsoft telemetry which is enabled by default. In fact, we previously covered how to install Visual Studio Code on Ubuntu 20.04 desktop using snap. rpm packages in addition to a distribution independent snap package. Microsoft even provides easily installed. Microsoft wants the Linux community to use VSCode. In fact, many in the community who never would have considered installing any other software from Microsoft may be tempted to try out VSCode. Because VSCode is built on open source and the source code is released under the MIT license, it is seen by many in the open software community as a welcome addition.
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One of the many benefits of using Linux over Windows is the fact that the user doesn’t have to send telemetry to Microsoft. Ever since the initial release of VSCode in 2015, it has become an increasingly popular programming tool amongst users of all desktop operating systems including GNU/Linux. VSCode’s feature set includes bracket matching, syntax highlighting, code folding, linting, debugging, and built in version control via Git, Subversion or Perforce. It is a directory based, language agnostic source code editor which focuses on directories rather than projects and has many extensions available for it. Visual Studio Code or VSCode is a text editor developed by Microsoft that supports many popular programming languages such as Go, Java, JavaScript, Node.js, Python, C and C++.
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