Microsoft's releases of Visual Studio Code are licensed under this not-FLOSS license and contain telemetry/tracking.

When we [Microsoft] build Visual Studio Code, we do exactly this. We clone the vscode repository, we lay down a customized product.json that has Microsoft specific functionality (telemetry, gallery, logo, etc.), and then produce a build that we release under our license.
When you clone and build from the vscode repo, none of these endpoints are configured in the default product.json. Therefore, you generate a "clean" build, without the Microsoft customizations, which is by default licensed under the MIT license

Extensions and the Marketplace
According to the VS Code Marketplace Terms of Use, you may only install and use Marketplace Offerings with Visual Studio Products and Services. For this reason, VSCodium uses open-vsx.org, an open source registry for VS Code extensions. See the Extensions + Marketplace section on the Docs page for more details.
Please note that some Visual Studio Code extensions have licenses that restrict their use to the official Visual Studio Code builds and therefore do not work with VSCodium. See this note on the Docs page for what's been found so far and possible workarounds.

https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium#why

[...] it appears to be a deliberate licensing choice by Microsoft to not allow use of the Remote Development extension pack with vscodium

  • Reminder: You may only use this software with Visual Studio family products

https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/issues/196#issuecomment-523012854
https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release/issues/967#issuecomment-510990794

Kindly reconsider the licensing for .NET Core debugging libraries
Why keep the debugger proprietary when there is no logical reason except "it's always been that way"? This seems like it goes against everything the .NET Foundation and .NET open source ecosystem stands for.

https://github.com/dotnet/core/issues/505

DRM in HTML5
A few days ago, a proposal was put forward in the HTML Working Group (HTML WG) by Microsoft, Netflix, and Google to take DRM in HTML5 to the next stage of standardization at W3C.

http://manu.sporny.org/2013/drm-in-html5/

[Bug] Name clash with Maui Linux and MauiKit

https://github.com/dotnet/maui/issues/35
https://github.com/dotnet/maui/issues?q=mauikit

Microsoft gets exclusive license for OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model

https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/22/microsoft-gets-exclusive-license-for-openais-gpt-3-language-model/

Microsoft Chat Bot Goes On Racist, Genocidal Twitter Rampage

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/microsoft-tay-racist-tweets_n_56f3e678e4b04c4c37615502

Former Microsoft Chief Privacy Adviser: "I don't trust Microsoft" - Only Uses Open Source Software

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/30/microsoft-privacy-chief-nsa

Using or license clrdbg outside of VSCode
Apparently, JetBrains Rider also hit the license issue and removed CoreCLR debugging

https://github.com/OmniSharp/omnisharp-vscode/issues/1059

DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT

https://github.com/dotnet/docs/blob/main/docs/core/tools/telemetry.md

Our team's plan is to transition users in VS Code over to Pylance.
After that, this repository will no longer be maintained, at which point you would have to migrate over to another open-source option.

https://github.com/microsoft/python-language-server/issues/2096#issuecomment-666507951

‘Crush Them’: An Oral History of the Lawsuit That Upended Silicon Valley
Twenty years ago, Microsoft tried to eliminate its competition in the race for the future of the internet. The government had other ideas.

https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/5/18/17362452/microsoft-antitrust-lawsuit-netscape-internet-explorer-20-years

Microsoft Continues to Use Software Patents to Extort/Blackmail Even More Companies That Use Linux, Forcing/Coercing Them Into Preinstalling Microsoft

https://web.archive.org/web/20160213205437/http://techrights.org/2016/02/10/extorting-acer-with-patents/

You are opted-in to just about everything by default and have to set hundreds of settings to opt out, even on an Enterprise Windows system. Sometimes multiple settings for the same feature. Most Microsoft documentation discourages opting out and warns of a less optimal experience.
It’s almost like they don’t want you to opt-out.
But you can’t completely opt-out. Windows still tracks too much.

https://xato.net/windows-spying-and-a-twitter-rant-19203babb2e7

Even when told not to, Windows 10 doesn't stop talking to Microsoft

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10053352

Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

https://www.pcmag.com/news/why-we-can-no-longer-trust-microsoft

Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says

https://torrentfreak.com/removing-annoying-windows-10-features-is-a-dmca-violation-microsoft-says-200611/

Microsoft to force Chrome default search to Bing via Office365 ProPlus installer

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22126083

Microsoft Halloween documents leak
Marked "Microsoft confidential", they identify open-source software, and in particular the Linux operating system, as a major threat to Microsoft's dominance of the software industry, and suggest ways in which Microsoft could disrupt the progress of open source software.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents
http://www.catb.org/esr/halloween/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes#Microsoft_funding_of_SCO_controversy
https://grantster.com/2012/06/07/the-stacker-conspiracy/
https://web.archive.org/web/20150601045234/http://badmicrosoft.com/

Mastering Avada Kedavra is a very hard job. The killing curse is one of the hardest of all spells to learn and can only be perfected by very powerful witches and wizards. There is no particular way to say the curse, although you must cast it in a particular way. First, you must hold your wand slightly-not far- into the air. Then you must slowly lower your wand and say the incantation clearly. If you move the wand too fast when casting the Avada Kedavra curse, there could be some major side-effects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Windows 10 start menu

https://news.softpedia.com/news/microsoft-begins-showing-an-anti-firefox-ad-in-the-windows-10-start-menu-529137.shtml

With Windows 10, Microsoft Blatantly Disregards User Choice and Privacy: A Deep Dive

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/windows-10-microsoft-blatantly-disregards-user-choice-and-privacy-deep-dive

Microsoft v. MikeRoweSoft

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.

Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/192251/microsoft-is-adding-ads-to-the-mail-app-in-windows-10

Microsoft says it won't sell facial recognition to the police.
These documents show how it pitched that technology to the Federal Government.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/microsoft-pitched-facial-recognition-dea-drug-enforcement

Microsoft’s monopoly is maintained by introducing the company’s software in education, lack of public bids for IT services, and well connected lobbyists.

https://thenextweb.com/news/europe-is-living-under-microsofts-digital-killswitch

Microsoft wants to monopolise games development on PC

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/04/microsoft-monopolise-pc-games-development-epic-games-gears-of-war

Microsoft asks pals to help KILL UK gov's Open Document Format dream

https://www.theregister.com/2014/02/22/microsoft_uk_odf_response/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_of_Office_Open_XML
https://www.informationweek.com/applications/microsoft-ooxml-controversy-rises-again/d/d-id/1072645
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/22/microsoft-faces-claims-it-threatened-mps-with-job-cuts-in-constituencies
http://www.groklaw.net

https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-to-pay-25-million-to-settle-foreign-bribery-probe-11563811097

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6596038

A driver containing rootkit malware was certified by Microsoft

https://www.pcgamer.com/a-driver-containing-rootkit-malware-was-certified-by-microsoft/

Hey Microsoft, stop installing apps on my pc without asking

https://www.howtogeek.com/342871/hey-microsoft-stop-installing-apps-on-my-pc-without-asking/

Microsoft 365 has employee surveillance and analytics built in

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25198713

Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/microsofts-bing-uses-google-search.html

Edge sends full URLs of pages visited to Microsoft

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20491257

Which tech companies back SOPA? Microsoft, Apple, and 27 others

https://thenextweb.com/news/which-tech-companies-back-sopa-microsoft-apple-and-27-others

Antitrust complaint against Android: Microsoft and Oracle say it's "predatory" for companies to give away software.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/opinion-antitrust-complaint-against-android-is-an-attack-on-open-source/

Microsoft repo installed on all Raspberry Pi’s

https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/lbu0t1/microsoft_repo_installed_on_all_raspberry_pis/

I think it's time I publicly shared about how Microsoft stole my code and then spit on it.

https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/8nztqi/i_think_its_time_i_publicly_shared_about_how/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17214257

Microsoft copied new Windows Package Manager from rival AppGet, claims developer

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/28/21272964/microsoft-winget-windows-package-manager-appget-copied

The Day AppGet Died

https://keivan.io/the-day-appget-died/

Windows 11: TPMs and Digital Sovereignty
We ask you to do your research in an age of increased restriction of personal freedom, censorship, and endless media propaganda. We strongly encourage you to research Microsoft’s future Pluton chip.

https://secret.club/2021/06/28/windows11-tpms.html

Microsoft wants to turn your pc into an Xbox with Pluton
“Microsoft Pluton Hardware Security Coming to Our CPUs”: AMD, Intel, Qualcomm
Innovating with our partners to enhance chip-to-cloud security
New chips and security do mean new fears about DRM, and the fact that processors will now call back to Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure for updates.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/16269/microsoft-pluton-hardware-security-coming-to-our-cpus-amd-intel-qualcomm
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/17/21571069/microsoft-pluton-processor-security-windows-pc
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25191319

In June 2002, Microsoft released information regarding its new "Palladium" initiative.
Palladium is a system that combines software and hardware controls to create a "trusted" computing platform. In doing so, it would establish an unprecedented level of control over users and their computers.
Palladium could place Microsoft as the gatekeeper of identification and authentication.
Additionally, systems embedded in both software and hardware would control access to content, thereby creating ubiquitous Digital Rights Management schemes that can track users and control use of media.

https://epic.org/privacy/consumer/microsoft/palladium.html

Voting manipulation on Microsoft Open Source thread on r/programming?

https://old.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/i9eldm/voting_manipulation_on_microsoft_open_source/

Edit
Pub: 29 Jun 2021 21:38 UTC
Edit: 03 Jul 2021 22:54 UTC
Views: 3926