Today I uninstalled VSCode
Tags: vscode, neovim, webdev, microsoft
Published: 2024-03-01 10:08:51

#### TL:DR

> Yup, this is real, this is totally legit. 
> On this very day I finally uninstalled VSCode.
> Goodbye Microsoft, and fˆ%c off!

Let me start with some context, I didn't start as a software engineer, but I was there:

- When `bgcolor` was an official property of HTML for styling
- When `jQuery` was something useful with `WordPress`
- When `actionScript` was the future of the internet

My first `hello world` was on the DOS with a little BASIC magic, but at the time this was not "software", just scripts, and I always used these "scripts" for simple stuff, automating my routine with design tools, and making my life easier, little did I know that these scripts were already "software", just my mind didn't recognise as software.

_I was naive._

In the last decade, when I started **to code for real**, I needed a tool for this, and Google Docs wouldn't help that much

But which text editor can I use? At the time there was not a single good solution, I saw some people with fancy IDEs, but this looks too complicated for my two-neuron-brain.

So there was the simple [Sublime](https://www.sublimetext.com/), which was good for the first few years, then I found [Brackets](https://brackets.io/) a text editor for the web, at the time software it was from the _beloved_ Adobe, so it was a nice choice.

I can design in Photoshop, open the Brackets and apply the changes there. Perfect match!

A few years later I had to jump on [Atom](https://atom-editor.cc/), and another year I was on the VSCode which was my home for the last 6 years. 

Everyone in the team uses it, friends, managers, the "namaste" guy, that nerdy Trekker, my uncle after downloading a "legal" version of Minecraft, your mon... 

But I know better, I know Microsoft, I saw what you did in the past, and I know how scummy and degenerated you are. That's why I never fully trusted.

At some point, I'll need to move. 

But move to where? [Zed](https://zed.dev/) isn't an open source (at the time), [Atom](https://atom-editor.cc/) is pretty much dead, maybe put my coins in the [Lapce](https://lapce.dev/), it's made with Rust, so should be blazing fast.

But they all felt that something was missing, there was no magic, there was no mystery.

The more I looked, the less I felt like changing from VSCode, and more frustrated with the conditioning that Microsoft did on my brain to not even try something else.

One day I saw my coworker using a very strange code editor, in the terminal, and I do spend a fair amount of time in the terminal, so why not? 

I decided to test, and _I failed super hard_. How am I supposed to use this tool? Why do I need to use `hjkl` to move the cursor? What curse is that?!

I quickly moved back to the safe walls of VSCode, but this little interaction made me think. Looks like this could be the new mystery for my two-neuron-brain to solve. But making the change would be too much effort, so how to make this change in a slow and easier manner?

First I need to learn the Vim motion, this is the way that this text editor moves things, and soon I found that pretty much all code editors have a way to enable this feature, from the elite JetBrain shitware to the worse nightmare xCode. 

So I just need to enable this feature on the VSCode, and... **F&ˆK**.

There is no toggle for that, where in my `settings.json` do I need to add to enable this? What do you mean there is an extension for that? Fine, one download later and I can start using it.

The first step was the hardest one, but now I can feel comfortable.

One day I did open my VSCode and I saw the new update, and I sniffed the usual shitification, looks like Microsoft is now collecting **more** data from me, more data from my usage, but wait. I did disable the telemetry, and I saw my `json` file with this flag disabled, but why I can see the network call for the Microsoft server? 

Considering my familiarity with the amazing quality of Microsoft, and looks like when you disable the telemetry, you disable part of it, not all of the telemetry, for the "bugs", "crash", and training data for the "Copilot", this is never an option.

For [some](https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/187407/microsoft-has-a-software-quality-problem) [reason](https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/187407/microsoft-has-a-software-quality-problem) [I'm not](https://onmsft.com/feature/microsoft-in-2021-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/) surprised.

If you look at the Edge Browser, it had a good start, but now just look at it and you can see the shitfication, Windows were never good to start, and the Teams was so badly bad that had to start from scratch to be just "bad" again.

And I ask, why VSCode would be different? 

Time to say goodbye to bloatware about AI shit forced on the developers on a global level trying to squeeze a few extra copilot subscriptions.

And with this, I'm moving my things to NeoVim and on the terminal I'll stay. Until Microsoft buys this software and turns it into shit.

Thanks for reading, 
And special thanks to this coworker who showed me the way,
And another one to the [cult leader ThePrimeagen](https://www.twitch.tv/theprimeagen)

Ps.: If you got offended by any text about Microsoft, I can recommend this [article](https://www.news24.com/you/archive/how-to-avoid-or-treat-burn-wounds-20170728-2) to help.