The Raspberry Pi Foundation pushed an update to fix the forced addition of the not-so-opensource Visual Studio Code editor from Microsoft to the Raspberry OS repositories.
That means that no longer pings are automatically send to the servers from Microsoft every time a user is checking on his Pi for updates. That is great.
What is exactly done:
Unpacking raspberrypi-sys-mods (20210310) over (20210208) ...
Setting up raspberrypi-sys-mods (20210310) ...
Blocking vscode repo...
Removing obsolete conffile /etc/apt/preferences.d/3rd_parties.pref ...
So this file has been /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list has been emptied:
### Disabled by raspberrypi-sys-mods ###In an earlier post we already advised to edit that file to disable the automatic checking.
We’re glad the Raspberry Pi Foundation followed our advise 😉 .
Furthermore this file has been removed: /etc/apt/preferences.d/3rd_parties.pref
cat /etc/apt/preferences.d/3rd_parties.pref
Package: code code-exploration code-insiders
Pin: release o=code stable
Pin-Priority: 400
Package: *
Pin: release o=code stable
Pin-Priority: -1
Package: *
Pin: origin "packages.microsoft.com"
Pin-Priority: 400
~Still the big question, Microsoft is touting about open source and coding for everybody. Why their open source code editor is not released with an open source license is still unanswered. Proprietary telemetry is too important apparently. Disappointing.
Let’s end by citing Jim Bennet, a Microsoft evangelist.
As a young child it was mind-blowing when my Dad brought home a work PC so he could write reports and I could use it to write up my school work – I was using what Dad used at work, making me feel important. I see this with my seven-year-old daughter, seeing her excitement that I use Microsoft Teams for work, the same as she uses for her virtual schooling (she’s even offered to teach me how to use it if I get stuck). To be able to bring that unadulterated joy of using ‘grown-up tools’ to our young learners is priceless.
Arghh, what more to say, a free sample, a marketing trick, priceless for Microsoft. Another reason why schools and kids should use only open source software.
Share knowledge, don’t exploit it.