Microsoft launched its Visual Studio Code for Windows, Mac, and Linux back in April 2016. This open source code editor soon grabbed the attention of developers; it was also recently featured on our list of the best text editors for Linux distributions and programming.
To make the installation and update process more seamless, Microsoft recently made Visual Studio Code available as a Snap. For those who don’t know, Snap is a new and universal packaging system for Linux applications containing all the required dependencies. A Snap app can be installed/removed/updated on any supported distro without affecting the host.
By bringing Visual Studio Code as a Snap, Microsoft is looking to reaffirm the notion that it cares for the open source community and its love for Linux is real.
It’s worth noting that Snap for the VS Code already existed, but it was community driven. Now Microsoft has officially built and supported it.
The March release is here ?
Including an official Snap package for Linux users!Download: https://t.co/NT4P4Lthbp
See what’s new: https://t.co/rjz8WPjaKl
Happy coding! pic.twitter.com/A8Gzmyi4NF
— Visual Studio Code (@code) April 4, 2019
At the moment, there are more than 40 Linux distros that support Snap, and now the Visual Studio Code team can distribute a consistent product across them. The automatic update functionality further ensures that the apps are up to date with the latest features and protected with security fixes.
To download the open source Visual Studio Code Snap, you can visit this page and grab the popular text editor for Linux. It comes with built-in support for languages such as JavaScript, TypeScript, and Node.js, and one can extend the functionality for C++, C#, Python, Java, PHP, Go, etc.
