VS Code is the most popular code editor in the world. It is also a telemetry collection platform that reports your behavior to Microsoft every time you open it.

Most developers do not know this because Microsoft built VS Code on top of an open source project and then added proprietary tracking before shipping it. The open source code is clean. The product you download from Microsoft is not.

VSCodium is the clean version.

The Two Versions of VS Code

Microsoft publishes the VS Code source code under the MIT license. That code is open source. Anyone can read it, build it, and distribute it. That project is called Code - OSS.

But the application you download from code.visualstudio.com is not that project. Microsoft takes Code - OSS, adds proprietary telemetry, adds Microsoft branding, adds a proprietary license agreement, connects it to the Microsoft-controlled extension marketplace, and ships it as Visual Studio Code. That binary is not open source. It is a proprietary Microsoft product built on top of open source code.

When Microsoft says VS Code is open source, they mean the source code is open. The product you actually install is not. That distinction is not accidental. It is the business model.

What Microsoft Collects

VS Code sends telemetry to Microsoft by default. Every time you launch it. Usage patterns. Extension installs. Error reports. Performance metrics. Feature usage. File type associations. The data goes to Microsoft’s telemetry servers.

There is a setting to turn it off. telemetry.telemetryLevel can be set to off. But that setting exists in a Microsoft binary that you did not compile. You are trusting Microsoft to actually honor that toggle. The same Microsoft that enabled telemetry by default in the first place. The same Microsoft that ships Windows with tracking that cannot be fully disabled. The same Microsoft whose Windows Recall feature takes screenshots of everything you do every five seconds.

Even with the setting turned off, VS Code still connects to Microsoft servers for extension updates, settings sync, and various online services. The editor phones home whether you want it to or not.

The Microsoft Account Push

VS Code increasingly pushes you to sign in with a Microsoft or GitHub account. Settings sync. Remote development. Copilot. GitHub integration. Extension recommendations. Feature after feature is gated behind or enhanced by a Microsoft account. Each one connects your coding activity to your Microsoft identity.

You can use VS Code without signing in. But the editor reminds you constantly. Sign in for settings sync. Sign in for Copilot. Sign in to save your profile. Every prompt is another opportunity to connect your development workflow to Microsoft’s data ecosystem.

An editor should edit code. It should not need to know who you are.

What VSCodium Is

VSCodium takes the same MIT-licensed Code - OSS source code and builds it without Microsoft’s additions. No telemetry. No proprietary license. No tracking. No Microsoft branding. No phone-home behavior baked into the binary.

It is the same editor. The same interface. The same keyboard shortcuts. The same extension architecture. The same terminal, debugger, Git integration, split panes, themes, and everything else you use VS Code for. Compiled from the same source code. Without the surveillance layer.

No telemetry

VSCodium disables all telemetry at build time. It is not a toggle you have to find and turn off. It is not a setting you have to trust Microsoft to honor. The telemetry code is patched out of the binary before it compiles. There is no phone-home behavior because the code that phones home does not exist in the build.

No proprietary license

VS Code ships under the Microsoft Software License Terms. VSCodium ships under the MIT license. You can read it in thirty seconds. You can use it for anything. You can modify it. You can distribute it. No legal ambiguity. No terms that change on the next update.

Open VSIX marketplace

Microsoft restricts their extension marketplace to official VS Code builds. VSCodium uses the Open VSX Registry instead, an open, vendor-neutral extension marketplace hosted by the Eclipse Foundation. Most popular extensions are available on Open VSX. For the few that are not, you can install .vsix files manually or configure alternative registries.

What You Keep

Everything that makes VS Code useful has nothing to do with Microsoft’s proprietary additions. The things you actually use every day all come from the open source codebase.

  • IntelliSense and language support
  • Integrated terminal
  • Built-in Git
  • Debugger
  • Extensions
  • Split editors and workspaces
  • Themes and customization
  • Remote development via SSH
  • Settings, keybindings, snippets

You lose nothing functional by switching to VSCodium. You lose the tracking.

What You Do Not Get

There are a few things tied specifically to Microsoft’s proprietary build that VSCodium does not include.

  • Microsoft’s extension marketplace. VSCodium uses Open VSX instead. Most extensions are available. Some Microsoft-exclusive extensions like Copilot, Live Share, and the official Python/C# extensions may require manual installation or alternatives.
  • Settings sync via Microsoft account. VSCodium does not connect to Microsoft’s sync service. You can sync settings through a Git repository, a dotfiles setup, or the Settings Sync extension on Open VSX.
  • GitHub Copilot integration. Copilot is proprietary and tied to Microsoft’s build. If you use Copilot, this is the one feature that does not carry over cleanly.

For most developers, none of these are dealbreakers. For developers who care about what their tools are doing behind their back, the trade is obvious.

Getting Started

Install on macOS

brew install --cask vscodium

Install on Linux

# Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install codium

# Ubuntu / Debian (add the repo first)
wget -qO - https://gitlab.com/paulcarroty/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/raw/master/pub.gpg \
  | gpg --dearmor \
  | sudo dd of=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg
echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.vscodium.com/debs vscodium main' \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install codium

Install on Windows

winget install VSCodium.VSCodium

Migrate your settings

If you are coming from VS Code, your settings, keybindings, and snippets can be copied directly. On macOS:

cp -r ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/* \
  ~/Library/Application\ Support/VSCodium/User/

On Linux:

cp -r ~/.config/Code/User/* ~/.config/VSCodium/User/

Extensions need to be reinstalled from Open VSX, but most are available under the same names. Open VSCodium, go to the extensions panel, and install what you need.

Running on a Server

VSCodium works for remote development the same way VS Code does. SSH into a server, run codium --install-extension for your language support, and connect from your local machine. The Remote - SSH workflow functions identically.

For headless server environments, VSCodium’s CLI works in terminal mode. You can edit files, manage extensions, and run tasks without a desktop environment. If you run development servers or need a quick editor on a VPS, codium works from the command line just like code.

The Principle

Your editor sees everything. Every file you open. Every line you write. Every project you work on. Every search you run. Every terminal command you execute. If any tool on your machine has a complete picture of your work, it is your code editor.

That tool should not be phoning home to anyone. It should not be collecting telemetry. It should not be nudging you to sign into a Microsoft account. It should not be shipping under a proprietary license when the source code it was built from is MIT.

VSCodium is the same editor without the surveillance. Same code. Same features. No tracking.

If you want to go further and drop the Electron and Chromium layer entirely, read why we moved to Zed.

Your editor sees everything you build. Make sure it is only showing you.