What’s the difference between code-server and OpenVSCode-Server? code-server and OpenVSCode-Server both allow you to access VS Code via a browser. OpenVSCode-Server is a direct fork of VS Code with changes comitted directly while code-server pulls VS Code in via a submodule and makes changes via patch files.

What is VS Code Server?

In VS Code, we want users to seamlessly leverage the environments that make them the most productive. The VS Code Remote Development extensions allow you to work in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), remote machines via SSH, and dev containers directly from VS Code. These extensions install a server on the remote environment, allowing local VS Code to smoothly interact with remote source code and runtimes.

We now provide a standalone “VS Code Server,” which is a service built off the same underlying server used by the remote extensions, plus some additional functionality, like an interactive CLI and facilitating secure connections to vscode.dev.

Architecture

We want to provide a unified VS Code experience no matter how you use the editor, whether it’s local or remote, in the desktop or in the browser.

Access to the VS Code Server is built in to the existing code CLI.

The CLI establishes a tunnel between a VS Code client and your remote machine. Tunneling securely transmits data from one network to another.

The VS Code Server experience includes a few components:

• The VS Code Server: Backend server that makes VS Code remote experiences possible.
• Remote – Tunnels extension: Automatically loaded in your local VS Code client, it facilitates the connection to the remote machine.

Scenarios

The VS Code Server allows you to use VS Code in new ways, such as:

• Developing on a remote machine where SSH support may be limited, or you need web-based access.
• Developing on a machine that doesn’t support the installation of VS Code desktop, such as an iPad / tablet or Chromebook.
• Experiencing the client-side security benefit that all code can be executed in the browser sandbox.

Meet IntelliSense

Go beyond syntax highlighting and autocomplete with IntelliSense, which provides smart completions based on variable types, function definitions, and imported modules.

Print statement debugging is a thing of the past

Debug code right from the editor. Launch or attach to your running apps and debug with break points, call stacks, and an interactive console.

Git commands built-in

Working with Git and other SCM providers has never been easier. Review diffs, stage files, and make commits right from the editor. Push and pull from any hosted SCM service.

Extensible and customizable

Want even more features? Install extensions to add new languages, themes, debuggers, and to connect to additional services. Extensions run in separate processes, ensuring they won’t slow down your editor.

Deploy with confidence and ease

With Microsoft Azure you can deploy and host your React, Angular, Vue, Node, Python (and more!) sites, store and query relational and document based data, and scale with serverless computing, all with ease, all from within VS Code.

Find out more here.