Rhino Linux Can (and Perhaps Should) Promote Alternatives to Microsoft Instead of Preloading Microsoft
Deeper down inside Rhino Linux there's a problem
In the past we criticised a number of distros (like Linspire/Freespire 'reborn') for steering users towards Microsoft. It's very seldom done by GNU/Linux distros and in BSD it's very rare. But that problem still exists.
"Warning," one person told us, as "Rhino Linux has Microsoft cruft installed by default..." (this mentions VSCodium)
As we explained many times before, getting people accustomed to VSCodium is good for Microsoft. It herds people into Microsoft's cage, which offers a lot of surveillance and proprietary things.
What to user instead of VSCodium? I myself have long relied on Kate... for about 2 decades already (prior to that KWrite, nedit and more). I tried all sorts of other editors, but I typically go back to Kate.
An associate notes that there are many Microsoft-free (as in, no Microsoft) "alternatives to Codium, and not just Emacs and Geany. There is Thonny too" and Wikipedia has an extensive list, which includes some of:
- Eclipse
- GNAT
- SASM
- Fresh
- Gambas
- Geany
- CodeLite
- KDevelop
- NetBeans
- Qt Creator
- OpenCobolIDE
- BlueJ
- Lazarus
- RStudio
It would be nice if Rhino Linux promoted some of the above instead of Microsoft-connected (and controlled) code. This article from last year says: "For experienced users, I wouldn't just recommend Rhino Linux. I'd encourage using it because this distribution can do so much. It even ships with VSCodium (the open-source equivalent of Microsoft's VS Code) and makes it very easy to add container support to the OS."
It's a weird thing to ship with, especially as many users would not use it. DistroWatch says it contained "codium 1.80.1.23194" a couple of years ago and a more up-to-date version (than 2023.1) says "codium 1.96.4.25017". That means that all the junk Microsoft adds to VS Code - except perhaps some of the conspicuous proprietary spyware - will also land in Rhino Linux.
The official site of Rhino Linux says: "Developers will fall in love with our vast software repositories which are always up-to-date. User repositories such as Pacstall can help provide development libraries that are critical for your project. With Codium preinstalled on your system you can begin doing what you do best, instantly."
But that teaches developers to become dependent on Microsoft. That's exactly what needs to be prevented.
There's no lack of decent editors - even versatile code editors - that aren't controlled by Microsoft, Microsoft's staff, Microsoft's GitHub, and "telemetry" fanatics. █