I wasn't aware that VS Code was "proprietary malware"? All the code for that is right on GitHub.[0] If you don't trust the prebuilt ones, you're free to build it from the source yourself.
Want something else? Their GitHub repo list has almost 4000 repositories totaling 130 pages![1]
Just because the OS itself isn't open source[a] doesn't mean that Microsoft doesn't open source a whole crap ton of stuff. And sure, Window's telemetry can easily be construed as "malware", but Windows is not the entirety of Microsoft.
[a]: And that's a lie too (sortove). It is open source.[2] (ahem source available (sorry, FSF)) You just need a valid reason to look at it besides "I want to". Sidenote: I personally would hope that Windows gets open sourced, but I'm not holding my breath.
Of course VSCode is proprietary malware - unless, as you suggest, you build it yourself and get rid of that proprietary telemetry malware (https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium)
But please don't suggest that we should praise Microsoft because they're decent enough to almost give us a somewhat convenient-if-you're-a-dev way to avoid being tracked?
> [a]: And that's a lie too. It is open source.[2] You just need a valid reason to look at it besides "I want to"
Google Search is open source as well, you just need a valid reason for them to hire you for their search team! /s
I agree with your overall comment in that Microsoft is not bad, but calling Windows 'open source' when the only ways to access it involves a long application process and a lot of money is quite a stretch. Nearly all source code is open under these definitions, as you can always pay for access, get hired, hack their servers or straight out buy the company. That's not what people usually consider open.
> I wasn't aware that VS Code was "proprietary malware"?
I'm sorry to see you are discovering this. VS Code is under this proprietary license [1]. As for the malware part:
> Data Collection. The software may collect information about you and your use of the software, and send that to Microsoft. Microsoft may use this information to provide services and improve our products and services. You may opt-out of many of these scenarios, but not all, as described in the product documentation located at https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/faq#_how-to-di.... There may also be some features in the software that may enable you and Microsoft to collect data from users of your applications.
(emphasis mine).
Indeed you can rebuild your copy or get Codium without the telemetry under the MIT license, and the software is really good, but it is a crippled version and does not make VS Code free software.
(edit: it's not pure / pointless theory! I'm sure there is an agenda behind VS Code not being really free. I would not be surprised if more and more "convenient" or important features were released as proprietary, and they also control the extension center (the market place), which is one of the main reasons Theia [5] exists. Beware not to lock yourself down in this ecosystem too much.)
> Just because the OS itself isn't open source[a] doesn't mean that Microsoft doesn't open source a whole crap ton of stuff
Microsoft is huge. The ratio between their proprietary code and the code that they open source is probably tiny. More importantly, they only release developer-related things, never things that target end users, except their telemetry-riddled Calculator [3].
> It is open source.[2] (ahem source available (sorry, FSF))
Hum. The reference for Open Source is the Open Source Initiative, not the FSF [2]. The FSF defines Free Software. These are almost equivalent things but still have two separate definitions.
Microsoft is not an open source software company. They just happen to be a huge software company and every huge software company open source a lot of code when it is strategic. I'm not judging, it's a fact. I'm happy to use some of their quality open source software targeted to the developer community like TypeScript, but an Open Source company would release their important code and be based on a business model around this.
And, no, we can't even really call Windows a source-available software. They share its source code to big entities so they can audit it, probably under NDA, and not everybody can access it. Actually you can find leaked code, but it is just this: leaked code. Mapbox-gl-js is a source-available software which is not open source (anymore) [4].
> Indeed you can rebuild your copy or get Codium without the telemetry under the MIT license, and the software is really good, but it is a crippled version and does not make VS Code free software.
Want something else? Their GitHub repo list has almost 4000 repositories totaling 130 pages![1]
Just because the OS itself isn't open source[a] doesn't mean that Microsoft doesn't open source a whole crap ton of stuff. And sure, Window's telemetry can easily be construed as "malware", but Windows is not the entirety of Microsoft.
[a]: And that's a lie too (sortove). It is open source.[2] (ahem source available (sorry, FSF)) You just need a valid reason to look at it besides "I want to". Sidenote: I personally would hope that Windows gets open sourced, but I'm not holding my breath.
[0]: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode
[1]: https://github.com/microsoft
[2]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/
P.S. Can we not use the "M$" moniker? It's almost childish. Just like "Crapple", "Microshit", etc, It serves no purpose.