VSCodium

Throughout the past two decades, Microsoft has been slowly shifting their focus towards implementing data-collection functions in their flagship operating system and core utilities for the purpose of analyzing what features are most frequently used and how to improve them. When it comes to Visual Studio Code, those seeking a truly libre experience should be well served by VSCodium.

Despite its efforts in terms of open-sourcing a variety of templates and programs in an attempt to aid developers in their quest to create both functionally and aesthetically compatible programs with Windows’ Fluent Design philosophy, many pivotal utilities remain hidden for either security or business-related purposes.

While Visual Studio Code’s source is freely available under the MIT license, the installation file itself is not, with one of the original programmers mentioning its inclusion of telemetry as an additional component only found within the binary.

This lack of straightforwardness prompted a part of the community to host and maintain a compiled version of the original source code for the convenience of the user-base portion that wishes to safeguard their privacy from any data collection-related practices without losing access to what makes Microsoft’s flagship code editing utility so versatile.

As a result, the end-user experience stays the same, allowing you to make use of its lightweight form-factor combined with a comprehensive library of extensions designed to adapt to any programming language and debuggers you want to incorporate in your workflow, without having to manually compile each newly-released version.

If you happen to work for a company with a strict data protection policy and you would appreciate having a risk-free code editing experience without compromising on the prowess of Visual Studio Code, VSCodium may be the right tool for your needs.