Re: Should we talk about "open source" hardware?

[andrew]

Let me copy this from the Code - OSS GitHub wiki...

# Differences between the repository and Visual Studio Code

This article outlines the differences between the 
[`github.com/microsoft/vscode`](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode) 
GitHub project (which we refer to as `Code - OSS`) and Microsoft's 
[Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com) distribution. 

## The `Code - OSS` Repository

The [`Code - OSS`](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode) repository is 
where we (Microsoft) develop the open source editor upon which we build 
the [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com) product. We 
contribute source code and manage issues in this repository. We also 
maintain the wiki, publish the Visual Studio Code roadmap, monthly 
iteration plans, and endgame plans for the product. The source code in 
this repository is available to everyone under a standard [MIT license]
(https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/master/LICENSE.txt). 
 
## Visual Studio Code

[Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com) is a distribution 
of the `Code - OSS` repository with Microsoft specific customizations, 
including additional source code and extensions, released under a 
traditional
[Microsoft product license](https://code.visualstudio.com/License/).

## What Goes Where?

We take great care to ensure that no proprietary code or assets are 
accidently contributed to the `Code - OSS` repo, so that it can be 
cloned and freely used by anyone in the community. 

Our guiding principle is that everything should be open source. If it 
isn't open source, it must be cleanly separated from the `Code - OSS` 
repository so that it is always possible to fork the repo and build a 
functional editor.

The small amount of assets and code that are not open source generally 
fall into one of the following categories:

* Trademarked assets that define the brand (e.g. logos and product 
  names)
* Code that has a reliance on existing proprietary code or libraries
* Code that is shared with other proprietary licensed products, such as 
  Visual Studio
* Code that may be used in, or provides access to, a service that we 
  run in our data centers (e.g. access to the [Visual Studio 
  Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/vscode))
* Pre-release code that is undergoing significant revision

The closed source additions to the distribution make up a very small 
percentage of the overall product. 

While not open source, we believe that transparency is very important 
to the health of the project and community. Therefore, we want to 
outline "the last mile" between what you see in the repository and what 
is built into the Visual Studio Code distribution. Most customizations 
are done through the customization of `product.json`, but we do include 
a small amount of additional code and assets in the final product.

| What | Why | How |
|------|-----|-----|
|Icons, Product Name (e.g. "Microsoft Visual Studio Code"), Documentation | 
Microsoft trademarks, which provide brand recognition for customers and helps 
to avoid confusion for downstream implementations. In other words, because we 
protect the brands, you know it is a product from Microsoft when you see 
it.|Static assets such as icons and the desktop image are included in the 
distro. Product names and documentation URLs are added to `product.json`.|
|Visual Studio Marketplace Integration | The [Visual Studio 
Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/vscode) is a service that we 
provide to users of the Visual Studio family of products (Visual Studio for 
Windows and Mac, Visual Studio Code, and Azure DevOps, formerly Visual Studio 
Team Services). The Marketplace not only provides discovery and hosting 
services, it provides ratings, comments, Q&A, publisher verification, virus 
scanning, conflict resolution services, payment services for Azure DevOps 
extensions, as well as support for publishers. The Marketplace is not a general 
purpose store designed to support any distribution or a subset of 
distributions. Access to the Marketplace is governed by the [Marketplace Terms 
of Use](https://aka.ms/vsmarketplace-ToU).|`product.json` includes URLs that 
point to the Visual Studio Marketplace.|
| Extension Recomendations | We maintain a curated list of "important" and 
"general" extension recommendations that are subsequently installed from the 
Marketplace, therefore we only include these in the distro. |`product.json` 
includes an array of extension IDs. |
| Remote Development | Portions of the [Remote Development 
extensions](https://aka.ms/vscode-remote/download) are used in [developer 
services](https://aka.ms/vsfutures) that are run under a proprietary license. 
While these extensions do not require these services to work, there is enough 
code reuse that the extensions are also under a proprietary license. While the 
bulk of the code is in the extensions and in the `Code - OSS` repository, a 
handful of small changes are in the Visual Studio Code distribution.|Parts of 
the code to negotiate a connection to the Visual Studio Code server are 
proprietary. |
| Enable Proprietary Debug Adapters, Visual Studio Code Server | Certain 
Microsoft extensions (e.g. C#/.NET debugger) and the Visual Studio Code Server 
are distributed under a license that restricts their use to the Visual Studio 
family of products (Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, or Visual Studio for 
Mac).| The distribution includes a native node module that allows the extension 
to use a "handshake" to adhere to the license by ensuring it is being used from 
Visual Studio Code.|
| Extensions Using Proposed APIs | We follow a strict API process based on 
proposed APIs ([Extension API 
Process](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/wiki/Extension-API-process)). 
Because proposed APIs often break, we generally do not allow that any extension 
using proposed APIs can be published to the Marketplace and loaded into Stable 
builds. We do however maintain a small list of extensions that are exempted 
from this rule because the publisher (typically Microsoft) has agreed to track 
the API changes.| `product.json` includes a list of extension IDs that can be 
published to the Marketplace and use proposed APIs.|
| Telemetry, Surveys, Crash Reporting| Microsoft collects **anonymous** usage 
statistics, survey data, and crash dumps to help improve the quality of the 
product. No personally identifiable information is gathered. Any data we do 
collect, such as crash dumps, is persisted in compliance with GDPR guidelines 
([FAQ](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/faq#_gdpr-and-vs-code)). 
You can disable telemetry collection, please see our 
[FAQ](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/faq#_how-to-disable-telemetry-reporting)
 for more details.| The App Insights telemetry keys, Hockey App URLs, 
Experiment URLs, and Survey probabilities and URLs are stored in `product.json` 
and are private so that other distributions cannot send us telemetry and we can 
maintain GDPR compliance.|
| Update Services | Visual Studio Code periodically checks with a service that 
we host to see if there are updates to be installed or, in extremely rare 
occassions, rolled back. | `product.json` contains the URL of the update 
service.|

I've Code - OSS from the Arch repositories back then, it was an okay
editor, but I don't prefer it to emacs or neovim.

=======================================================================
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Free Computing Movement (https://fcm.andrewyu.org)
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Libre Society (https://project.andrewyu.org/libresociety)

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Andrew Yu <andrew@andrewyu.org> (https://www.andrewyu.org)