VSCodium

VSCodium is a community-driven distribution of the VS Code editor, built from Microsoft's MIT-licensed source code. It's for developers who want the familiar editor without the tracking and license terms attached to Microsoft's own download, the closest free-licensed take on Visual Studio Code.

The reason it exists is simple. Microsoft's source repository is open, but the product it ships adds a custom configuration with telemetry, its own extension gallery, and branding, then releases the result under a proprietary license. Building a clean version yourself produces an MIT-licensed editor, but that takes work. VSCodium does the build for you and publishes the binaries.

What you get:

• MIT-licensed binaries produced by public build scripts that clone Microsoft's repository and compile it
• Telemetry disabled by default
• Desktop builds for macOS, Windows and Linux
• Package manager support through Homebrew, WinGet, Chocolatey, Scoop, Snap, Flatpak, Nix, the Arch User Repository and Gentoo
• Repositories for deb and rpm distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL and openSUSE
• Insiders builds for those who want pre-release versions

VSCodium comes pre-installed in Parrot OS. Windows builds use free code signing, and the macOS builds are signed with a certificate donated to the project.

Because it tracks upstream VS Code, the editing experience stays the same. The project keeps a migration guide for people moving over from Microsoft's build, covering the quirks you might run into. If you want a native Mac editor instead, CodeEdit takes a different approach.