As it happens month to month the new update for Visual Studio Code has been introduced and in this new version 1.55 presented, one of the most important novelties is that now supports Raspberry Pi OS, the dedicated Raspbian fork as the new operating system for all Raspberry Pi with the launch of the 8GB RAM model.
With that, Microsoft has taken the initiative to fix things and take a step with the right foot after the events earlier had somehow set up controversies when, in February, theThe Raspberry Pi Foundation proceeded to install a Microsoft repository apt on all Raspberries that had their Raspberry OS installed, without the knowledge of their owners.
At the time, the idea behind adding the Microsoft apt repository was also to make it easier to use the Visual Studio Code development environment.
This move by the Raspberry Foundation I did not go unnoticed within the Linux community, which had stepped forward to oppose the lack of transparency and telemetry. In fact, the repository installation was done silently, without user consent.
Some users did not stop remembering the tensions between Linux and Microsoft about telemetry. In fact, every apt-get update on Raspberries that were working with the latest stable version of the Raspberry OS operating system and the repository installed silently causes a connection to Microsoft's servers.
This is a valid way for Microsoft to identify people as users of the Raspberry Pi operating system when they access certain services such as Bing or GitHub (owned by Microsoft) and then create a profile for targeted advertising with this information.
In fact, this new announcement of compatibility with Visual Studio Code in Raspberry Pi Brilliant Jim Bennett, specialist in Raspberry Pi of Microsoft commented the following:
“I see kids learning Python in school using one tool, then after school they learn web development in a coding club with another tool. They can now do both in the same app, reducing cognitive load. They only have to learn a single tool, a single debugger, a single configuration. Combine that with the new Raspberry Pi 400 and you have an all-in-one solution for learning to code, ”he said. From now on, a sudo apt install code (run after a sudo apt update) should allow Visual Studio Code to install on Raspberry Pi OS after download.
Another novelty that is presented in this new version of Visual Studio Code is accessibility, this is because this version now supports screen readers for multiple cursors. The number of lines that the screen reader can announce has also been increased from 100 to 1000. In addition, the total removal of the limit is being considered.
Other changes include support for profiles defined in the terminal, which is extremely useful for launching a shell other than the default one.
It is also noted that the WebGL renderer is now the default (it first appeared in experimental form towards the end of 2019) and the functions Start debugging and Stop on entering the JavaScript debugger are returning. Mac users will be happy to see icons that are better suited to Apple's Big Sur OS update.
Finally, also it is noted that some more APIs have been added to allow extensions to check if a user has used the –disable-telemetry command line flag to disable telemetry and that additional properties have also been added to the extension API env object and OnDidChangeTelemetryEnabled now fires whenever isTelemetryEnabled.
If you are interested in knowing more about the livery of this new version of Vistual Studio Code 1.55, you can consult the details in the following link.
It has only cost us our confidence with the Raspberry pi OS system by inadvertently introducing a signed repository that includes telemetry.