If you have used Visual Studio Code (VS Code) and loved its features but felt uneasy about Microsoft’s telemetry or licensing, VSCodium is a community-driven free and libre fork of VS Code.

VSCodium gives us the same familiar editor, extensions, and interface, but without the Microsoft branding, tracking, or proprietary components. It is built directly from VS Code’s open-source code (under the MIT licence) and stripped of any telemetry or usage data collection.

In this post, I will share how to install it on Debian-based operating systems and share my use cases, my favorite extensions, and configurations.

Installation

# Pre-requirements
sudo apt update; sudo apt install wget gnupg

# Add the GPG key of the Repository
wget -qO - https://gitlab.com/paulcarroty/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/raw/master/pub.gpg | gpg --dearmor | sudo dd of=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg

# Add the Repository
echo -e 'Types: deb\nURIs: https://download.vscodium.com/debs\nSuites: vscodium\nComponents: main\nArchitectures: amd64 arm64\nSigned-by: /usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.sources

# Install codium
sudo apt update && sudo apt install codium

# Verify installation
codium --version

Key Extensions

Vim

Purpose: A Vim emulator for VSCodium. ID: vscodevim.vim

LaTeX Workshop

Purpose: Provides core functionality for LaTeX typesetting. ID: James-Yu.latex-workshop

Citation Picker for Zotero

Purpose: Adds Zotero integration to VSCodium. Requires the Better BibTeX plugin to be installed in Zotero. ID: mblode.zotero

Syncing

Purpose: an Extension for Sync the User Settings, Keybindings, Extensions, Locales and Snippets to a GitHub Gist. ID: nonoroazoro.syncing Configuration: Setup a personal token (with only one permission Gist) My shortcuts: (Super = Windows/Command key)

  • Alt + Super + U => Upload
  • Alt + Super + D => Download

Integrating VSCodium with the Thunar file manager on Debian XFCE

Thunar stores custom actions in .xml files located in ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml (for user-specific actions).

  1. Open the configuration file with a text editor: 
    nano ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml
  2. Add the following XML block between the <actions> tags: 
    <action>
  <icon>vscodium</icon>
  <name>Open with VSCodium</name>
  <command>codium %f</command>
  <description>Open the selected file/folder in VSCodium</description>
  <patterns>*</patterns>
  <directories/>
  <text-files/>
  <other-files/>
</action>
  3. Save and exit.

VSCodium Configuration (settings.json)

VSCodium settings can be configured at two levels: 🌍 Global Settings (User-wide)

  • Applied across all VS Code windows
  • Located in: settings.json (user settings file) 📁 Workspace Settings (Project-specific)
  • Specific to the current project only
  • Located in: .vscode/settings.json (within your project folder) Note: workspace settings override global settings when both are present.

Settings when working with Python

Python Interpreter Configuration

{
    "python.defaultInterpreterPath": "/path/to/env",
    // "explorer.sortOrder": "modified"
}

File Explorer: Exclude Files

Purpose: Hides specified files/folders from the VS Code Explorer sidebar

{
    "files.exclude": {
        "**/__pycache__": true,   // Hide Python cache directories
        "**/*.pyc": true,         // Hide compiled Python files
        "**/.pyc": true           // Hide .pyc files (alternate pattern)
    }
}

Search: Exclude Files

Purpose: Prevents specified files/folders from appearing in search results

{
    "search.exclude": {
        "**/__pycache__": true,   // Exclude cache directories from global search
        "**/*.pyc": true          // Exclude compiled Python files from search
    }
}

Conclusion

VSCodium offers the best of both worlds: the full power and extensibility of Visual Studio Code with complete freedom from telemetry and proprietary components. Whether you’re a privacy-conscious developer, working in a restricted environment, or simply prefer open-source software, VSCodium is a drop-in replacement that feels identical to VS Code while respecting your digital autonomy.

With VSCodium now installed and configured on your Debian system, key extensions are ready for development and document writing. This setup serves as the foundation for upcoming posts:

  • Installing TeX Live
  • Using VSCodium as a TeX Live editor
  • Integrating Zotero with VSCodium

Each guide will expand on today’s setup, turning VSCodium into a complete research and writing environment.