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Comment by frik | Hacker News Reader

Sorry to nick pick but the following download statement is "not optimal":

  When this tool crashes, we automatically collect crash 
  dumps so we can figure out what went wrong. If you don’t 
  want to send your crash dumps to Microsoft, don't install 
  this tool.

So no check box to deactivate this phone-home feature that used to be standard in Microsoft products like Visual Studio, Office and Windows. That's a regression. (Source - bottom grey text: https://code.visualstudio.com//#alt-downloads )

Edit: there is only a small "preview" symbol on the top left, beside that no text or screenshot mentions it: https://code.visualstudio.com/

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Visual Code is a brand new tool, and we only use the telemetry to help improve product quality, and better understand how our tool and features are being used so we can know how to improve VSCode. By the time we exit Preview, we will provide a way to opt out of this reporting.

Whats in the crash info? Because even the name of the file or any memory content means I can't use it because it might leak company secrets (e.g product names).

Then don't use it until it is stable. This is a preview release

What, you mean you don't use a bunch of preview products to work on your top-secret company code?

Somewhere at MS: "I told you this scheme would work! We finally got their product name. Send word to our team to begin immediately." rubbing hands together

Visual Studio Online "Monaco" code editor from November 14, 2013 seems to be the predecessor: http://weblogs.asp.net/jongalloway/a-quick-look-at-the-new-v... (scroll half way down for many screenshots and videos)

"This is the Monaco editor component from Erich Gamma's group out of Zurich. It was originally written in JavaScript but gradually rewritten in TypeScript. When Anders speaks about teams within Microsoft building large TypeScript systems, this is one he is talking about" as one comment mentioned on a related article "It's also used in VisualStudio and IE11's new F12 tools.": http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ARichNewJavaScriptCodeEditorSp...

"Code uses a newer, faster version of the same industrial-strength HTML-based editor that has powered the “Monaco” cloud editor, Internet Explorer's F12 Tools, and other projects.": https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs

It's not.

It's based on Electron: http://electron.atom.io/

(look at the bottom of the page)

Electron is just what lets you run a Node app outside of a browser.

Wrong. It is!

Look at the VSCode-linux-x64.zip in dir "\resources\app\server\" there is a "monaco.impl.js". It's the "monaco" editor component that comes from Switzerland that is also used in Visual Studio Online.

Digging into `Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/main.js` reveals the crash reporter.

``` // Handle crashes reporter.start({ productName: 'Ticino', companyName: 'Microsoft', submitUrl: 'https://ticinocrashreporter.azurewebsites.net/crash', autoSubmit: true }); ```

Sorry to nitpick but it's nitpick, not nick pick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_louse#Nits

I'm hoping this is only while it's in development/beta?

Yep, that's what all Microsoft public betas and previews do. That's why they release them, to get data.

I agree, there should be an option for that.

But for those who care about their privacy, IMO its approaching the problem from the wrong angle if you're trying to get some developer to change their code to respect your privacy. Its their code. They can do what they want.

We as users should have protections from them attempting to submit information we don't want leaked. To me the solution is better perimeter monitoring and filtering.

While not practical in many situations I would highly recommend filtering all outbound traffic using a new firewall that supports such features (Sophos UTM for one, PfSense for another). Its the only way to know for sure those requests don't get out even when there is a disable option.

Free tool comes with strings attached, so?

Free BETA program comes with a clause that you must submit crash data. Sounds fine to me.

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