FYI VSCode's SSH Agent is a godsend for remote development - the "disadvantages" that Fly lists are part of its advantages. I've worked in several teams that have made extensive use of the extension, and it's never been an issue. You can restrict SSH access arbitrarily to ensure whatever security or access guardrails you need.
As a Linux user I've hated VSCode's ssh. There's lot of annoying things that make it harder to admin for. Like it doesn't pick up the MotD, preventing me from showing users important messages. I've found that it also doesn't reuse sessions (at least by default. TBF, neither does ssh) and I'll find that there's just dozens of open sessions over months from users. I literally had to write a script to boot people...
It would be one thing if the plugin was just a wrapper and people were still expected to know ssh but the plugin abstracts away all that and is intended to make it a "use VSCode on remote machine" tool. So it needs to do more than just handle creds, otherwise it creates a divergent experience while making people think it's just ssh
I don't find it that opaque. Even without trying to deobfuscate the obfuscated source code which Microsoft ships (I haven't tried but it wouldn't be hard) a lot of details about how it works become obvious just by reading its logs.
Of course, it is a pity Microsoft doesn't open source it. But there are some well-maintained open source alternatives, e.g. <a href="https://github.com/jeanp413/open-remote-ssh" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jeanp413/open-remote-ssh and <a href="https://github.com/F1yingWhite/fast-remote-ssh" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/F1yingWhite/fast-remote-ssh (I haven't got around to giving either of them a go–but I really should.)
They will never open source it. For the same reason Pylance etc. aren't open source and MS tries hard to prevent them to be used in VSCodium. Every one of their open sourced projects contains a closed source plug that MS can pull at any time that is one of the features that gives the project its unique selling points.
danielklnstein · · focus · HN ↗
FYI VSCode's SSH Agent is a godsend for remote development - the "disadvantages" that Fly lists are part of its advantages. I've worked in several teams that have made extensive use of the extension, and it's never been an issue. You can restrict SSH access arbitrarily to ensure whatever security or access guardrails you need.
godelski · · focus · HN ↗
It would be one thing if the plugin was just a wrapper and people were still expected to know ssh but the plugin abstracts away all that and is intended to make it a "use VSCode on remote machine" tool. So it needs to do more than just handle creds, otherwise it creates a divergent experience while making people think it's just ssh
causal · · focus · HN ↗
skissane · · focus · HN ↗
Of course, it is a pity Microsoft doesn't open source it. But there are some well-maintained open source alternatives, e.g. <a href="https://github.com/jeanp413/open-remote-ssh" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jeanp413/open-remote-ssh and <a href="https://github.com/F1yingWhite/fast-remote-ssh" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/F1yingWhite/fast-remote-ssh (I haven't got around to giving either of them a go–but I really should.)
AnonymousPlanet · · focus · HN ↗