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Rewrite differences in FAQ
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- Move differences to the Codespaces section since they apply to both
  Codespaces and OpenVSCode-Server
- Add some important missing differences
- Exclude settings sync (not being worked on)
- Exclude the plugin API (deprecated)
- Exclude certificate support (browsers these days are starting to
  require trusted certs so better not to recommend using this)
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code-asher committed Feb 27, 2023
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Showing 1 changed file with 22 additions and 14 deletions.
36 changes: 22 additions & 14 deletions docs/FAQ.md
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Expand Up @@ -390,28 +390,36 @@ Theia doesn't allow you to reuse your existing VS Code config.
## 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. The two projects also use their own [forks of VS Code](https://github.com/coder/vscode) to
leverage modern VS Code APIs and stay up to date with the upsteam version.
browser. The two projects also use their own [forks of VS
Code](https://github.com/coder/vscode) to leverage modern VS Code APIs and stay
up to date with the upsteam version.

However, OpenVSCode-Server is scoped at only making VS Code available in the web browser.
code-server includes some other features:

- password auth
- proxy web ports
- certificate support
- plugin API
- settings sync (coming soon)

For more details, see [this discussion post](https://github.com/coder/code-server/discussions/4267#discussioncomment-1411583).
However, OpenVSCode-Server is scoped at only making VS Code available as-is in
the web browser. code-server contains additional changes to make the self-hosted
experience better (see the next section for details).

## What's the difference between code-server and GitHub Codespaces?

Both code-server and GitHub Codespaces allow you to access VS Code via a
browser. GitHub Codespaces, however, is a closed-source, paid service offered by
GitHub and Microsoft.

On the other hand, code-server is self-hosted, free, open-source, and
can be run on any machine with few limitations.
On the other hand, code-server is self-hosted, free, open-source, and can be run
on any machine with few limitations.

Specific changes include:

- Password authentication
- The ability to host at sub-paths
- Self-contained web views that do not call out to Microsoft's servers
- The ability to use your own marketplace and collect your own telemetry
- Built-in proxy for accessing ports on the remote machine integrated into
VS Code's ports panel
- [Some other things](https://github.com/coder/code-server/tree/main/patches)

Some of these changes appear very unlikely to ever be adopted by Microsoft.
Some may make their way upstream, further closing the gap, but at the moment it
looks like there will always be some subtle differences.

## Does code-server have any security login validation?

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