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    Raspberry Pi OS automatically installing Microsoft repository

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion and Gaming
    microsoftraspberry pi os
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    • GreenGriffonG
      GreenGriffon @brandflake11
      last edited by GreenGriffon

      @brandflake11 I think if this were as harmless or "not a big deal" as some people want to make it seem, there would have been transparency surrounding its inclusion in the distro.
      There wasn't. They snuck it in there with root-level permissions, without a word about what it's doing.
      Shady as hell.

      mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • mituM
        mitu Global Moderator @GreenGriffon
        last edited by

        @greengriffon said in Raspberry Pi OS automatically installing Microsoft repository:

        There wasn't. They snuck it in there without a word about what it's doing.

        No, they didn't. It's part of the package's changelog:

        pi@raspberrypi $ zless /usr/share/doc/raspberrypi-sys-mods/changelog.gz  | head -n 20
        
        raspberrypi-sys-mods (20210125) buster; urgency=medium
        
          * Add Microsoft's VS Code repo on upgrade
        
         -- Serge Schneider <serge@raspberrypi.com>  Mon, 25 Jan 2021 16:03:24 +0000
        

        It's a bit difficult to 'hide' something when it's open source.

        GreenGriffonG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • GreenGriffonG
          GreenGriffon @mitu
          last edited by

          @mitu Respectfully, that response ignores the actual issue. That line does nothing to inform the user as to what the package is actually doing.

          mituM brandflake11B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • mituM
            mitu Global Moderator @GreenGriffon
            last edited by mitu

            @greengriffon said in Raspberry Pi OS automatically installing Microsoft repository:

            That line does nothing to inform the user as to what the package is actually doing.

            The package is not installed by default on upgrade - the user has to install it.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • brandflake11B
              brandflake11 @GreenGriffon
              last edited by

              @greengriffon Hmm, what do you mean? It does tell you that it adds the VS Code repo.

              GreenGriffonG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • GreenGriffonG
                GreenGriffon @brandflake11
                last edited by

                @brandflake11 Telling you that VS Code is being added does not inform the user that MS has root-level access to your device and also pings their server.
                I don't know how many times I can say the same thing.

                mituM brandflake11B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • mituM
                  mitu Global Moderator @GreenGriffon
                  last edited by

                  @greengriffon said in Raspberry Pi OS automatically installing Microsoft repository:

                  elling you that VS Code is being added does not inform the user that MS has root-level access to your device and also pings their server.

                  How does MS have root access just because the VS COde repository has been added ?

                  GreenGriffonG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • brandflake11B
                    brandflake11 @GreenGriffon
                    last edited by brandflake11

                    @greengriffon Yeah the root access keys part I wrote is misleading, so I apologize for that. It just means that you have a key that trusts software from the repo automatically. So if you have the repo installed, and don't know about it, and something changes in the future, you could mistakingly install software from Microsoft that you may not want, say in an update.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • GreenGriffonG
                      GreenGriffon @mitu
                      last edited by

                      @mitu said in Raspberry Pi OS automatically installing Microsoft repository:

                      How does MS have root access just because the VS COde repository has been added ?

                      I don't think you watched the video, or have followed any of the discussion on this issue.

                      brandflake11B mituM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • brandflake11B
                        brandflake11 @GreenGriffon
                        last edited by

                        I think a better solution to all of this would have been just making a build of VSCode available on Raspberry Pi's official repos. I would feel a lot safer than using one from Microsoft.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • mituM
                          mitu Global Moderator @GreenGriffon
                          last edited by mitu

                          @greengriffon said in Raspberry Pi OS automatically installing Microsoft repository:

                          I don't think you watched the video, or have followed any of the discussion on this issue.

                          I didn't, because the title is a cheap click-bait. I know how apt/dpkg works and just adding the repository doesn't give Microsoft access to anything on your system.

                          @brandflake11 I think a better solution to all of this would have been just making a build of VSCode available on Raspberry Pi's official repos

                          Agree, I think that may happen after the responses on the Raspberry Pi forums.

                          brandflake11B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • brandflake11B
                            brandflake11 @mitu
                            last edited by brandflake11

                            Another thing I wanted to bring up: according to Wikipedia, the binaries of VSCode Microsoft builds are freeware, not MIT like the source code is. Here is the official VSCode EULA for more clarification. This is assuming that the builds on the repos are using these versions. If the builds are freeware, that does technically mean this is non-free software, doesn't it? It's kind of like Chrome vs Chromium, right?

                            mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • mituM
                              mitu Global Moderator @brandflake11
                              last edited by mitu

                              Here is the official VSCode EULA for more clarification.

                              The page states that

                              This license applies to the Visual Studio Code product. Source Code for Visual Studio Code is available at https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode under the MIT license agreement at https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/blob/master/LICENSE.txt.

                              This is assuming that the builds on the repos are using these versions. If the builds are freeware, that does technically mean this is non-free software, doesn't it? It's kind of like Chrome vs Chromium, right?

                              Yes, that could be the situation and the packages in the repo may be using some Microsoft bits that are not part of the official source repository.

                              brandflake11B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • brandflake11B
                                brandflake11 @mitu
                                last edited by

                                @mitu This is a great clarification to know about and have here for users who may want to make their own choices regarding this.

                                mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • mituM
                                  mitu Global Moderator @brandflake11
                                  last edited by

                                  @brandflake11 There's a vscode with the non-MS bits at https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium. The differences (in license and distributed binaries) are explained in
                                  https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/60#issuecomment-161792005

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • RedBatmanR
                                    RedBatman @brandflake11
                                    last edited by

                                    @brandflake11 LOL you beat me to it

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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