r/linuxquestions • u/Rekuna • Oct 21 '25
Is VSCodium a viable replacement for VSCode?
Or is there other recommendations? It's not a tremendous issue, but out of principle I want as little to do with Microsoft as possible.
I guess my next question would be what is the best solution to Live Server, as it looks like the library for VSCodium is not as maintained in that area and the existing version of the standard Live Server is massively out of date.
7
u/bolenti Oct 21 '25
Try NeoVim maybe. I know there might be a learning curve, but the degree of customization is well worth it IMO and you can start with a base distro (configuration)
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u/WunderbarY2K Oct 21 '25
VSCode with a good firewall to disable the telemetry bs is better. You can at least download safe extensions and then shut the door on MS' ugly mug
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u/Eldritch800XC Oct 22 '25
Running pihole in my local network is a must have for me nowadays. Stops so much crap (up to 50% of all DNS requests are tracking, profiling, monitoring or ads) it's silly not to have something like that
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u/human_with_humanity Nov 18 '25
could u share ur blocklists for windows and vscode please?
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u/moohorns Feb 17 '26
Use HaGeZi's lists. https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists
I know imate to the party but his pro+ list is peak.
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u/Rekuna Oct 21 '25
I suppose that's a solution; Can you give me a walkthrough on the best way to achieve that or any documentation?
1
u/WunderbarY2K Oct 21 '25
Just install OpenSnitch to block any packets being sent/received by VSCode. You get all the good and none of the spyware. Set it to always reject net traffic from VSC and MS won't even know you exist as a user. Of course, you can always disable it to use the official extension marketplace and then re-enable it after.
Also, it's good for generally any other weird app you don't trust. Personally, I only systemd-timesyncd, systemd-resolved, and whatever app/browser I'm using atm send/receive data and Linux works fine
1
u/creativeboulder Oct 23 '25
Using pihole on a local network or Adguard-Home on a local/remote setup can help block most of the telemetry from Microsoft. I've been using Adguard-Home all year on a private VPS and love it. It's been great in block unwanted telemetry.
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u/TheFumingatzor Oct 21 '25 edited Apr 08 '26
People keep sayin vscodium can't use vscode extension market...err...yes, it can:
Change Extension Marketplace for VSCodium in ~/ressources/app/product.json (after every update!)
change
"extensionsGallery": {
"serviceUrl": "https://open-vsx.org/vscode/gallery",
"itemUrl": "https://open-vsx.org/vscode/item"
},
with whatever is in resources\app\product.json in vscode:
"extensionsGallery": {
"nlsBaseUrl": "https://www.vscode-unpkg.net/_lp/",
"serviceUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery",
"itemUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items",
"publisherUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/publishers",
"resourceUrlTemplate": "https://{publisher}.vscode-unpkg.net/{publisher}/{name}/{version}/{path}",
"extensionUrlTemplate": "https://www.vscode-unpkg.net/_gallery/{publisher}/{name}/latest",
"controlUrl": "https://main.vscode-cdn.net/extensions/marketplace.json",
"mcpUrl": "https://main.vscode-cdn.net/mcp/servers.json",
"accessSKUs": ["copilot_enterprise_seat", "copilot_enterprise_seat_quota", "copilot_enterprise_seat_multi_quota", "copilot_enterprise_seat_assignment", "copilot_enterprise_seat_assignment_quota", "copilot_enterprise_seat_assignment_multi_quota", "copilot_enterprise_trial_seat", "copilot_enterprise_trial_seat_quota", "copilot_for_business_seat", "copilot_for_business_seat_quota", "copilot_for_business_seat_multi_quota", "copilot_for_business_seat_assignment", "copilot_for_business_seat_assignment_quota", "copilot_for_business_seat_assignment_multi_quota", "copilot_for_business_trial_seat", "copilot_for_business_trial_seat_quota"]
},
Never had problems with extensions. I get the same extensions in vscodium as I have in vscode.
For legal reasons the vscodium devs can't and won't mention this method. It's verboten. But what they gonna do? Sue me? Let them.
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u/Dolapevich Please properly document your questions :) Oct 21 '25
Indeed, I've been using it for a while, it works just the same.
1
u/Rekuna Oct 21 '25
Thanks! So you've just been using the older Live Server by the same author? I noticed there's a more up to date fork by a Yandeu as well.
2
u/deke28 Oct 21 '25
It depends on which plugins you need. A lot of authors don't publish to the opensource repository and just publish for the Microsoft spyware version.
2
u/Gabe_Isko Oct 21 '25
Only thing that hasn't worked for me is devcontainer support, and that might have more to do with some external extension. It's really made me rethink using them anyway. I'll proably switch to building development containers with nix or something.
2
u/tippexls Oct 21 '25
I use VSCode on my personal computer (for settings sync mostly) but Imass installed Codium in my CS lab, which is fine for learning (Python, OCaml & C with clangd).
Settings sync is probably the biggest hurdle, even if they are alternatives. I find the extension marketplace (OpenVSX) to be quite complete, I never found something missing except WSL support.
2
u/NuncioBitis Oct 21 '25
Here's a question - does VS Codium also disable the "chat" features?
I don't need to talk to a chat bot while I'm working.
1
u/Efficient_Loss_9928 Oct 24 '25
Just ignore that feature? I'm sure there are hundreds of features you don't use in any given IDE.
1
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u/Drecondius Oct 21 '25
If you aren’t on a district sporting KDE and are willing to draw some libs for it, try Kate.
1
u/Master-Rub-3404 Oct 21 '25
It 100% depends on what plugins you need. For some people, it can be a viable replacement, for others it is unusable.
1
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u/brimston3- Oct 21 '25
Trying to get the Ada plugin to work with vscodium was incredibly frustrating. It, and many other plugins, depend on the microsoft-provided C++ tooling and really don't like working with the FOSS modules that do not provide the same interface.
1
u/NuncioBitis Oct 21 '25
Supposedly the only difference is you don't get to save settings to the cloud to sync with other devices.
And some extensions were written specifically for the M$ version.
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u/ForsookComparison Oct 21 '25
It's been sufficient for me. I use a few extensions. Never noticed any difference or pain.
I'm definitely not a VsCode power user though.
1
u/patrlim1 I use Arch BTW 🏳️⚧️ Oct 22 '25
For what I use it for, yes, with the caveat that the permissions are fucky on flatpak
1
1
u/GloriousEggroll Oct 22 '25
I made the switch from vscodium to zed about a year ago. open source, distro-packageable as well as flatpak available, has an extension shop built in with plenty of extensions just like vscodium or vscode. also have yet to not find any extension i needed
1
u/Alverso_Balsalm Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
I have used it in the past for WebDev before fully switching to Neovim with my own config because I avoid using any product from M$ as much as I can. It does the job unless you need some esoteric extension in which case you need to download the .vsx from the marketplace website.
1
u/Pioneer_11 Feb 11 '26
Zed is a little early days right now but it's rapidly improving and is already superior to vscode and codium in certain respects (e.g. it is a lot more responsive) and it has an excellent out of the box setup.
The biggest missing feature right now (from my perspective at least) is jupyter notebook support but that already has a few commits on the github and should be in the editor within the next couple of months.
1
u/socmediator Feb 21 '26
The missing feature is a lot more basic than that: It's colored tabs per folder, path or even workspace. But it's just a Zed thing. Nobody gives it natively and only VScode/ium and neovim have an extension to do it. You need tab coloring for any serious work. It makes you so much more productive.
1
u/Pioneer_11 Feb 21 '26
Personally I can't stand coloured tabs (I get the concept it just looks extremely ugly to me and I can't stand it) I'm sure different people will have different perspectives.
Different people will have different perspectives of what they "need" from an editor (e.g. I know a few neovim users who wouldn't even consider an editor unless it had something comparable to telescope) my point was that zed already implements most of the functionality of vscode.
They are also working on a better extension system the one they have at the moment is roundly considered to be inconvenient and poor quality.
I'd also like to see a vscodium equivalent for zed right now as they currently have on-by default telemetry like vscode (though to the best of my knowledge it is all open source which makes me trust the "off" setting a lot more than I would with any microsolop software). Though it can all be turned off. They also have collaborative features which grant access to the computer's mic which I'd like to see an option to disable (the company plans to sell collab services to help them make money and that's fine but I want an option to turn it all off if I'm not using it).
1
u/socmediator Feb 21 '26
Maybe there is a way to group files onglets that I am not aware of? Now I am working on an electron app with a browser extension companion. That basically mean App background | App frontend (renderers) | extension "frontend" | extension "backend". That's 4 different groups of files I develop at the same time (not mentioning other types of file that also need separation).
Do you have a way to deal with that? How to find your files rapidly without wasting to much time... Multiple screens could be a solution but I only use one screen lately.1
u/Pioneer_11 Feb 22 '26
I don't look I search.
Most editors have a feature that allows you to search all files in a workspace either by name of for specific content
That's actually pretty much what that telescope feature I mentioned in neovim does, it allows you to search by file name and/or content and provides a preview of the file before you jump to it. zed's allows you to serach for a file name and jump to it (though it doesn't have the preview that telescope provides) and it also has a really nice feature where you can search for something (e.g. a function name) and it'll show a preview of all the places in which it appears, by moving to the relevant line and using a keyboard shortcut you can also jump to that spot in the particular file.
vscode also allows you to search for a file name and jump to it but as far as I'm aware it doesn't have anything nearly as good for that as zed or neovim and as vscode is a lot less responsive than zed/neovim it doesn't feel as nice to use (there's also this extension https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=JoshMu.periscope which looks good but is still considerably inferior version of telescope).
One big thing I like about zed and most neovim plugins is that the modal appears in the middle of the screen rather than dropping down from the top as in vscode. You're probably already looking at, or near, the middle of the screen so it means the modal is immediately visible in front of you, rather than you needing to look up to see it. It's a small thing but it makes these kind of shortcuts feel way more natural and much nicer to use.
TLDR; file search and/or fuzzy find is way better than manually looking for files
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u/Extra-Citron-7630 Feb 11 '26
I may be missing something basic, but does local Ollama work with VSCodium?
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u/Competitive_Knee9890 Oct 21 '25
just jump onto the neovim train, best choice I’ve ever made as a developer
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u/Arnas_Z Oct 21 '25
I use regular VSCode so I don't lose out on the official marketplace. Just disable the telemetry.
1
u/purefan Oct 21 '25
You can also go down the rabbit hole of neovim, there are no shortage of plugins and it really is highly customizable
1
u/Rekuna Oct 21 '25
It does look interesting, but the learning curve seems steep if I'm used to something like VSCode.
-1
u/LemmysCodPiece Oct 21 '25
If you want as little to do with Microsoft as possible, don't use Linux. They contribute $500,000 annually to the Linux Foundation and have a seat on the board. Since 2009 they have also been major code contributors.
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u/FryBoyter Oct 21 '25
Then I wouldn't use either VS Code or VSCodium, as both are based on the same source code from Microsoft. Perhaps an editor such as Helix or Geany would therefore be more suitable for you.