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VS Code Servers? Microsoft or Coder?
I've recently discovered that Microsoft allows you to self-host vscode.dev:
However, I have also discovered, it's not as popular as Coder's Code Server:
Has anyone done a review comparing the 2? I imagine they are pretty similar experiences, but wondering if they have ever been compared?
From my understanding, there is only 3 major differences between the 2.
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Microsoft's Code Server is still in Preview
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Microsoft uses the official Microsoft extensions marketplace where Coder uses the Open-VSX extension gallery
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While both are software-locked to single user access, Microsoft's is also restricted by license. Coder's license permits usage of multiple user access and running it as a service, where Microsoft's supposedly does not.
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Technically speaking you could setup MS Code Tunnel in a similar fashion as Coder's "Multiplayer Mode," it supposedly still goes against Microsoft's usage license.
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I mean… as a developer I always want to just run vscode over ssh. It’s objectively a better experience
Doing this as a sysad. Makes it way easier to control config and service files from any of my devices. For code-server on Ubuntu, it only takes 3 commands, and I can reconfigure my server via web interface from anywhere.
Once I can get it fully implemented, it'll be protected by Nginx Proxy Manager and OAuth2-Proxy.
As someone who never really understood why having an IDE in the browser was useful, can I ask what your use case is? When wouldn't I want a local text editor?
Access a full dev environment on any device, anywhere, including iPads.
I run code server in kubernetes for my dev team to provide access to all the microservices running there. It’s also nice to have a Linux dev environment instead of a barely functioning, adminless windows laptop that these companies like to issue to employees these days…
Easy access to server configuration files without CI/CD implemented.
I don't have a development stack up yet. I'm starting with a network stack then moving on to dev.
Once I get CI/CD implemented I'll likely remove it/rebuild the network stack appropriately.
Is there any official or unofficial docker image for Microsoft VS Code Server?
I want to have the Microsoft extensions Gallery on my code server :(
It's been open source under an MIT license since 2015ish.
The difference is Microsoft releases it as a proprietary binary and can attach additional restrictions to it. code-server (not familiar with this particular one) is just using the same source and making it available under the original license.
Microsoft may add additional functionality to it's release that isn't available in other open source packages, but the particulars of that I don't know as I've only used the open source releases.
The extension marketplace is a biggie. I use code-server, the free-er version of the two, but not having ssh-remotes hurts.
The license doesn't restrict you to a single user, it's just simply not designed for multi-users. You are restricted from providing it as a service (as in software as a service, which other people pay you to provide)