At the risk of getting bashed, isn't 'pinging a Microsoft server' what happens every time I clone, push, or pull from GitHub? There might be be bigger issues to deal with than apt repositories if you don't want to ping a Microsoft server.
If you pull from a github server, you do so by choice. If you add Microsoft's repo to your apt sources, you do so by the choice. The problem is that the repo was added silently and without giving you a choice.
I suppose I get that, but surely that is happening all over the web all the time? I don't really have a choice about what is being pinged just by going to the Reddit site that mentions the issue (unless I use pi-hole, er...).
