Due to its closed source nature pylance should not be installed automatically

[davidskeck]

See #16116 for background. We should not be installing Pylance automatically. I have removed my installations of this extension because I don't want this closed source blob in my editor. I will have to move to an older version or forego this tool altogether until this is addressed.

If we review #16134, we can see the following header was added.

PLEASE NOTE: This Python extension for Visual Studio Code has a hard dependency on the Jupyter extension for Visual Studio Code which is installed automatically alongside it. The Python extension for Visual Studio Code also holds an optional dependency on the Pylance extension for Visual Studio Code, which is also installed automatically but is separately licensed.

All the source code for the Python extension for Visual Studio Code is available under the MIT License (given below) as is the source code for the Jupyter extension for Visual Studio Code. But the optional Pylance extension for Visual Studio Code is only available in binary form and it is not licensed under the MIT License. The Pylance extension for Visual Studio Code is licensed under a Microsoft proprietary license, the terms of which are available here: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items/ms-python.vscode-pylance/license.

This is a little user-hostile in my opinion. This commit takes a full open source tool that has been open source from the beginning and adds a closed source blob, with very little notification of this fact. I got a notification that Pylance was installed, but not that it changed the licensing terms of the tool I was using. I had to do the research to find this out.

If the tool could prompt the user, making it very clear that pylance is a closed source extension that includes analytics and they can choose to install we wouldn't need to have this mishmash of licensing terms. We can't even install vscode-python anymore without forcibly including closed source blobs. I know the pylance extension is optional, but in my opinion, it shouldn't be included at all in the default install. If it is optional, give me the option to install it, don't include it in the install with no choice in the matter.

[davidskeck]

I'm going to move this to Q/A and mark it as answered since you can uninstall Pylance and then set the default language server to Jedi. Unfortunate choice to make a closed source language server the default and install it without asking, but there is a way around it.

[veredcon]

Hi @davidskeck
I encounter a similar issue. We develop an IDE based on VSCode open source and we are allowed to install only extensions under MIT license. However I notices the "python" extension is a pack of Jupyter and Pylance and only Jupyter is under MIT lisence.
My question is how programmatically we'll be able to remove from the python installation the Pylance installation?
We need a python VSCode extension only with MIT lisence.
Thank you for your feedback!

[davidskeck]

Hello,

At the bottom of this post there are instructions for how to remove Pylance and change back to Jedi: https://www.easilyfascinated.com/2021/05/11/microsoft-pylance-and-licensing-sleight-of-hand

Unfortunately you're correct that there's no way I know of to prevent the installation of Pylance when first installing the Python extension, you can only remove it after the fact. Personally I've moved away from VSCode and use the Kate editor with Jedi.

[veredcon]

Thank you very much for the prompt reply and the information!