> Regardless, though, it's open source

Some major bits and pieces of the base editor are, but little of what makes vscode into a usable productive tool (namely, the refined extensions and LSP implementations around it, i.e. what users come to expect when they install it in the first place) is open-source. vscode put a lot of marketing effort into being perceived as open-source so to buy sympathy from eventual users.

Let's stop at "vscode is open-source in a very narrow and limited capacity, and thoroughly deceptive in its messaging".

I would honestly love to see the result of a survey asking vscode users whether they think they are using an open-source product, and how much of that is actually verified based on the extensions being used.

> Let's stop at "vscode is open-source in a very narrow and limited capacity, and thoroughly deceptive in its messaging".

OK, yes, I agree; we should stop, as the disagrement seems to boil down to semantics.

I think "open source" is basically binary (modulo the usual free-as-in-beer or free-as-in-beer-but-also-you-can't-do-stuff-I-don't-like ambiguity).

But some nuance does come into play around "VS Code" — what is it? It feels the same as Chrome to me, but it's harder to see where the VS Code equivalent of Chromium is. (Not super hard, mind you, but Chrome/Chromium make it explicit, whereas VS Code does not.)

Anyway, I agree that VS Code is (while still, IMO, "open-source") is not "open-source to the point of maximal awesomeness".