_Note: if you see "App can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer" when opening VSCodium the first time, you can right-click the application and choose Open. This should only be required the first time opening on a Mac._
You can always install using the downloads (deb, rpm, tar) on the [releases page](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/releases), but you can also install using your favorite package manager and get automatic updates. [@paulcarroty](https://github.com/paulcarroty) has set up a repository with instructions [here](https://gitlab.com/paulcarroty/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo). Any issues installing VSCodium using your package manager should be directed to that repository's issue tracker.
VSCodium is not available as a Flatpak app, but [@amtlib-dot-dll](https://github.com/amtlib-dot-dll) has done significant work to package up the open source build of Visual Studio Code without telemetry, very similarly to VSCodium. That package is available [here](https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.visualstudio.code.oss) and the build repo is [here](https://github.com/flathub/com.visualstudio.code.oss).
Microsoft's downloads of Visual Studio Code are licensed under [this not-FLOSS license](https://code.visualstudio.com/license) and contain telemetry/tracking. According to [this comment](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/60#issuecomment-161792005) from a Visual Studio Code maintainer:
> 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
This repo exists so that you don't have to download+build from source. The build scripts in this repo clone Microsoft's vscode repo, run the build commands, and upload the resulting binaries to [GitHub releases](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/releases). __These binaries are licensed under the MIT license. Telemetry is disabled.__
If you want to build from source yourself, head over to [Microsoft's vscode repo](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode) and follow their [instructions](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/wiki/How-to-Contribute#build-and-run). This repo exists to make it easier to get the latest version of MIT-licensed VSCode.
Microsoft's build process does download additional files. This was brought up in [Microsoft/vscode#49159](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/49159) and [Microsoft/vscode#45978](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/45978). These are the packages downloaded during build:
- Extensions from the Microsoft Marketplace:
- ms-vscode.node-debug2
- ms-vscode.node-debug
- From [Electron releases](https://github.com/electron/electron/releases) (using [gulp-atom-electron](https://github.com/joaomoreno/gulp-atom-electron))
For more information on getting all the telemetry disabled and tips for migrating from Visual Studio Code to VSCodium, have a look at this [Docs](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/DOCS.md) page.
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](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/DOCS.md#proprietary-debugging-tools) on the Docs page for what's been found so far and possible workarounds.
