Joe Previte

Software Engineer

Whitney Hurston

Account Executive

<p>In this article, we’ll compare code-server to Coder v2 Enterprise, why we built it and what problems it solves compared to code-server. By the end of this, you’ll know if you should stick with code-server or migrate to Coder v2 Enterprise.</p>

<h2>code-server was built for individual users</h2>

<p>When we built <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server">code-server</a> years ago, we had one goal in mind: write code from anywhere via the browser. This changed the playing field for remote development. All you needed was a machine and you could run code-server. It was beautiful and it works really well.</p>

<h3>People wanted more</h3>

<p>However, we soon realized that many people were using code-server in conjunction with other tools, such as Kubernetes and NGINX, to build their own VM or Docker-based solutions. </p>

<p>This led us to create Coder, a centralized platform for developers and data scientists to quickly get a development environment up and running.</p>

<h2>Coder v2: our solution for Enterprise Teams</h2>

<p>Since having that realization, we’ve built two versions of Coder. In Coder v1, workspaces were Kubernetes pods with containers. However, we learned that not all developers needed containers but VMs instead, and some enterprises wanted more control over how development environments were defined. </p>

<p>With the launch of v2 in 2022, we used Terraform to enable a &quot;workspaces-as-code&quot; paradigm that allows for easy and powerful configuration of development environments.</p>

<h3>When should you switch?</h3>

<p>When deciding whether to switch from code-server to Coder, consider the following factors:</p>

<h4>Not everyone uses VS Code</h4>

<p>code-server only works with VS Code, so if your developers use other IDEs such as Jupyter, PyCharm, or IntelliJ, you’ll need a solution with multi-IDE support, like Coder. See the full list of IDEs we’ve tested and officially support <a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder-oss/latest/ides">here</a>.</p>

<h4>You want to manage dependencies from one place</h4>

<p>Sure, you could point your team to code-server and have them each setup their own instance on a container or virtual machine. But what happens when one person is using Python 2.7 and another is using Python 3? </p>

<p>With Coder, team leads and administrators define container or VM images with the required IDEs, languages, frameworks, build tools and dependencies to build a developer’s development environment. Development environments are standardized and managed from one place and it saves a whole lot of headaches.</p>

<h4>You like saving $$$ on compute</h4>

<p>Both code-server and Coder are entirely self-hosted and self-managed, so you’ll run it on your on-prem or cloud infrastructure. If you’re cost-conscious, you probably don’t want to have containers and VMs running 24/7 or give developers carte blanche access to costly cloud resources. </p>

<p>In addition, you probably don’t want to have to spend $$$ on beefier machines so developers can get their jobs done. Coder allows for granular control over compute cost using Resource Quotas, auto-start/shutdown functionality and Kubernetes node autoscaling to ensure your devs can stay in flow and be productive, without wasting compute resources.</p>

<h4>You care about security</h4>

<p>code-server has basic password authentication out-of-the-box and you would need a reverse proxy to securely let users connect to code-server as opposed to opening a firewall port directly and exposing an IP address or DNS entry. Your users would also have to configure browser encryption which isn’t fun.</p>

<p>Coder on the other hand has built-in and SSO authentication options to securely authenticate users before opening a workspace and an IDE. As part of the installation process, encryption and secrets can be centrally configured once. Workspaces and the underlying compute have a one-to-one relationship with users.  i.e., a user is only able to access a workspace, and no one else besides an administrator. This reassures enterprises that source code and sensitive data are secure in the workspace.</p>

<p>Coder also provides enterprise controls over which VS Code extensions can be used, via <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-marketplace">Coder’s open-source extension marketplace server</a>.</p>

<p>If any of these factors apply to your team, you may want to consider switching to Coder OSS or v2 Enterprise. However, if you are an individual user and code-server meets your needs, you may want to stick with it.</p>

<h2>Interested in migrating to Coder v2?</h2>

<p>If you realize Coder v2 might be the solution for you and your team and you’re interested in migrating to it, let’s chat! We have a team ready to help make the move as seamless as possible.</p>

<p>To chat with our sales team, <a href="https://coder.com/contact">reach out to Sales</a> and we’ll get the ball rolling.</p>

<p>Lastly, Coder v2 is open-source on <a href="https://github.com/coder/coder">GitHub</a>. Give us a star so we can help more teams move to remote development environments. Thanks for reading!</p>


In this article, we’ll compare code-server to Coder v2 Enterprise, why we built it and what problems it solves compared to code-server. By the end of this, you’ll know if you should stick with code-server or migrate to Coder v2 Enterprise.

Should I stay with code-server or upgrade to Coder v2?

<h2>Reflecting on 2022</h2>

<p>At Coder, we are big believers in reflecting on progress and sharing insights with the community. We’re trying something new this year. We’ve gathered data from our telemetry stats on code-server usage and want to share some of those insights with you. We also want to share some codebase improvements made by our maintainers.</p>

<h3>Usage Insights</h3>

<p>One thing we haven&#39;t done in the past is talk about our usage insights based on our telemetry data. This is interesting because it provides a little insight into code-server&#39;s community. We hope this data proves  useful to both the community and extension authors. </p>

<p>Here are some insights from our data based on the 5% of users who have telemetry enabled. </p>

<p><strong>Most Active Country: United States and Other</strong>
The US and Other (which means we’re unsure) makes up the largest percentage of our users, followed by China. However, you’ll notice that our users expand all across the globe. </p>

<div style="text-align: center">
<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/19109/1671122104-cs-year-in-review-countries.png" alt="country data in pie chart" width=400>
</div>

<div style="text-align: center">
<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/19109/1671122119-cs-year-in-review-usage-map.png" alt="global usage map of code-server users" width=400>
</div>

<p><strong>Most Used Shell: bash</strong>
The most popular shell was /bin/bash and /usr/bin/bash followed by /bin/sh. </p>

<div style="text-align: center">
<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/19109/1671122114-cs-year-in-review-shell.png" alt="most used shell pie chart" width=400>
</div>

<p><strong>Most Popular Extension: Python</strong>
The most popular extension was Python followed by Jupyter (which technically gets installed together) followed by the C++ extension. Here is a table of the Top 50 most popular VS Code extensions according to our data:</p>

<table>
  <tr>
   <td><strong>Rank</strong>
   </td>
   <td><strong>Extension Name</strong>
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>1
   </td>
   <td>ms-python.python
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>2
   </td>
   <td>ms-toolsai.jupyter
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>3
   </td>
   <td>ms-vscode.cpptools
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>4
   </td>
   <td>Gruntfuggly.activitusbar
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>5
   </td>
   <td>vscode-icons-team.vscode-icons
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>6
   </td>
   <td>eamodio.gitlens
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>7
   </td>
   <td>tushortz.python-extended-snippets
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>8
   </td>
   <td>bierner.markdown-emoji
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>9
   </td>
   <td>vscjava.vscode-maven
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>10
   </td>
   <td>vscjava.vscode-java-debug
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>11
   </td>
   <td>redhat.java
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>12
   </td>
   <td>mauve.terraform
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>13
   </td>
   <td>vscjava.vscode-java-test
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>14
   </td>
   <td>vscjava.vscode-java-dependency
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>15
   </td>
   <td>vscjava.vscode-java-pack
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>16
   </td>
   <td>batisteo.vscode-django
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>17
   </td>
   <td>mechatroner.rainbow-csv
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>18
   </td>
   <td>MS-CEINTL.vscode-language-pack-zh-hans
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>19
   </td>
   <td>bale.theme-darkplusplus
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>20
   </td>
   <td>formulahendry.code-runner
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>21
   </td>
   <td>esbenp.prettier-vscode
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>22
   </td>
   <td>njpwerner.autodocstring
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>23
   </td>
   <td>dbaeumer.vscode-eslint
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>24
   </td>
   <td>donjayamanne.githistory
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>25
   </td>
   <td>mhutchie.git-graph
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>26
   </td>
   <td>unknown
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>27
   </td>
   <td>redhat.vscode-yaml
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>28
   </td>
   <td>twxs.cmake
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>29
   </td>
   <td>golang.go
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>30
   </td>
   <td>auchenberg.vscode-browser-preview
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>31
   </td>
   <td>GrapeCity.gc-excelviewer
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>32
   </td>
   <td>magicstack.MagicPython
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>33
   </td>
   <td>octref.vetur
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>34
   </td>
   <td>CoenraadS.bracket-pair-colorizer
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>35
   </td>
   <td>zhuangtongfa.material-theme
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>36
   </td>
   <td>wholroyd.jinja
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>37
   </td>
   <td>kisstkondoros.vscode-gutter-preview
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>38
   </td>
   <td>GabrielBB.vscode-lombok
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>39
   </td>
   <td>yzhang.markdown-all-in-one
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>40
   </td>
   <td>donjayamanne.python-extension-pack
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>41
   </td>
   <td>Equinusocio.vsc-material-theme
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>42
   </td>
   <td>formulahendry.vscode-mysql
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>43
   </td>
   <td>ms-vscode.cmake-tools
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>44
   </td>
   <td>austin.code-gnu-global
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>45
   </td>
   <td>oderwat.indent-rainbow
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>46
   </td>
   <td>dracula-theme.theme-dracula
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>47
   </td>
   <td>wayou.vscode-todo-highlight
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>48
   </td>
   <td>shd101wyy.markdown-preview-enhanced
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>49
   </td>
   <td>donjayamanne.javadebugger
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>50
   </td>
   <td>MS-CEINTL.vscode-language-pack-ko
   </td>
  </tr>
</table>

<h3>Codebase Improvements</h3>

<p>2022 was also a year with lots of codebase improvements. Including pre-release candidates, we had 27 releases! Many of the changes were about making it easier for us to release faster. Here are some of the changes we want to highlight:</p>

<p><strong>OpenVSX as the Default Extension Marketplace</strong></p>

<p>The biggest change to code-server in 2022 was making <a href="https://open-vsx.org/">OpenVSX</a> the default extension marketplace. We moved away from Coder’s extension marketplace because OpenVSX was better maintained and allowed us to focus more efforts on code-server. Related to that, we also open-sourced a new project called <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-marketplace">code-marketplace</a> which allows you to run your own extension marketplace.</p>

<p><strong>Upstreamed 3 Patches to VS Code</strong></p>

<p>One thing we try to do is upstream our changes back to microsoft/vscode when it makes sense. We were able to upstream and merge three (<a href="https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/pull/161853">1</a>, <a href="https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/pull/131447">2</a>, <a href="https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/pull/147467">3</a>) which was a huge win for us! We hope to upstream more in the future.</p>

<p><strong>Added Flag to Disable Downloads</strong></p>

<p>Per a request from one of our Enterprise customers, we <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/pull/5055">added a new flag called –disable-file-downloads</a> which disables a user from right-clicking and downloading a file in code-server. This is a minor security improvement for teams who want to make it harder for users to download files. It can also be enabled by setting the environment    variable <code>CS_DISABLE_FILE_DOWNLOADS</code> to ‘true’ or ‘1’. </p>

<p><strong>Automatically Forward Ports</strong></p>

<p>A built-in feature in VS Code is automatically forwarding ports. We <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/pull/5673">added a patch</a> and made some changes to use the code-server&#39;s built-in proxy or the <code>VSCODE_PROXY_URI</code> environment variable. Now it works out-of-the-box in code-server and in coder.</p>

<p><strong>Improved Release Process</strong></p>

<p>The theme of 2022 for the code-server maintainers was reliability and better maintenance. We focused most of our efforts on testing and improving the release process by:</p>

<ul>
<li>Speeding up CI by running jobs in parallel</li>
<li>Adding a second e2e test suite behind a reverse proxy</li>
<li>Refactoring the release process to allow release candidates</li>
<li>Modifying the release flow to run via GitHub Actions</li>
</ul>

<p>Overall, this means code-server can now release more frequently and get new versions out to users faster.</p>

<p><strong>Guidance on how to use code-server with multiple users</strong></p>

<p>In 2022 we explored various solutions for <a href="https://coder.com/blog/code-server-multiple-users">using code-server with multiple users</a>. Think of this as a high-level overview of real-world approaches to solving this problem. All solutions are based on real things we’ve seen from the community.</p>

<p><strong>Coder released instructions and new OSS how to run your own vscode marketplace</strong></p>

<p>One of our biggest open source projects that was inspired by work done in code-server is code-marketplace, a project to <a href="https://coder.com/blog/running-a-private-vs-code-extension-marketplace">run your own private VS Code extension marketplace</a>. You can find the repo <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-marketplace">here</a>.</p>

<h2>Resources</h2>

<p>For more information about some of the things discussed in this article, take a look at the following resources:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server">code-server repo</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/releases">code-server releases</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/coder/code-marketplace">code-marketplace</a>: open source extension marketplace</li>
<li><a href="https://coder.com/blog/code-server-2021-year-in-review">code-server 2021 Year in Review</a></li>
<li><a href="https://coder.com/docs/code-server/latest/CONTRIBUTING">How to contribute to code-server</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/coder">All Coder&#39;s oss projects</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Summary</h2>

<p>We&#39;re grateful to the community members for participating in telemetry and allowing us to aggregate this data to share with the world. It provides a lot of useful information and impacts the decisions we make at Coder. In 2023, we will continue making code-server easy to maintain and well-tested.</p>

<p>We want to thank you all for being part of the code-server community. This project would not be as successful without all of you. Thank you to everyone who contributed in 2022. We also hope to see some new faces in 2023. </p>

<p>If you’re interested in contributing to code-server but don&#39;t know where to get started, start a new Discussion <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/discussions">here</a> and tag @jsjoeio. I&#39;ll be happy to mentor you! </p>

<p>Happy coding!</p>


In this article, we'll discuss insights on code-server's usage in 2022. We'll also highlight major codebase improvements from the team. 

A year in review: code-server insights for 2022

Marc Paquette

Freelance Writer

<p>The original article was written by Joe Previte. We’ve refreshed it with new and updated links to help you set up code-server for your team.</p>

<p>In this article, we’ll explore various solutions to providing code-server for multiple users. Think of this as a high-level overview of real-world approaches to providing each of your users with their own instance of <a href="https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode">VS Code</a>. All solutions are based on real things we’ve seen from the community.</p>

<h2>From Single Player to Multiplayer</h2>

<p>When we launched <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server">code-server</a> back in 2019, we had one goal in mind: bring <a href="https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode">VS Code</a> to the web. Since then the project has grown beyond what we could have imagined. One of those ways is providing code-server for multiple users.</p>

<p>While we’ve developed our <a href="https://github.com/coder/coder">own solution</a> to this problem, I want to explore all the solutions we’ve seen implemented by the community. The goal is to provide a holistic overview of each so you can decide which suits the needs of you and your team. </p>

<h2>Show me the code</h2>

<p>If you want to jump straight into code examples, take a look at these code-server setups for teams:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://sourcegraph.com/search?q=context:global+code-server&patternType=standard&sm=1">Global search via Sourcegraph for code-server</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/tobycm/code-server-instance-manager-nginx">code-server instance manager</a> + <a href="https://github.com/tobycm/nginx-code-server-router/">router</a> </li>
</ul>

<h2>Solutions for Multiplayer Mode</h2>

<p>As a reminder, code-server itself is designed for single-player mode. You get a machine, you install code-server via a package manager or the release binaries. You start it up and boom, you have your IDE in a browser. </p>

<p>This drastically reduces the number of tools needed for your dev workflow to only two:</p>

<ol>
<li>an internet connection</li>
<li>a web browser</li>
</ol>

<p>To add more users, we now need a solution. Over the years, we’ve seen many discussions come up around this problem. Let’s explore the ones that folks have shared with us and the pros and cons of each. </p>

<h2>Running Multiple code-server Instances on Different Ports</h2>

<p>This is by far the simplest approach we’ve seen used. Your team has one machine with code-server installed. For each user, you run their own instance of code-server on different ports. Here’s a diagram with more details:</p>


<h3>Pros</h3>

<ul>
<li>Only requires one machine</li>
<li>Configuration is simple</li>
</ul>

<h3>Cons</h3>

<ul>
<li>May use lots of RAM</li>
<li>Possible file conflicts if admin isn’t super careful (i.e: admin should <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/discussions/5761#discussioncomment-4187077">restrict user to home directory</a></li>
<li>Possible limit to number of users</li>
</ul>

<p>If you have fewer than five users, this approach may work for your team. More than that, you’re likely to run into problems.</p>

<h2>Running Multiple Docker Containers with code-server</h2>

<p>A common approach we’ve seen is to have one machine run multiple Docker containers each with their own code-server instance. We use this approach for <a href="https://dev.coder.com">dev.coder.com</a> but use <a href="https://github.com/coder/coder">Coder</a> to orchestrate it. This is similar to the previous approach except the Docker containers run in isolation. That means no file conflicts. Here’s a diagram with more details:</p>


<h3>Pros</h3>

<ul>
<li>Only requires one machine</li>
<li>Configuration is simple</li>
</ul>

<h3>Cons</h3>

<ul>
<li>May use lots of RAM</li>
<li>Possible limit to number of users</li>
</ul>

<p>Similar to the previous approach, it can work for small teams but you may run into limitations and need more machines.</p>

<h2>Running minikube with a code-server Instance on Each Container</h2>

<p>One of the less popular approaches but still worth knowing is using <a href="https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/">minikube</a> to set up a local Kubernetes cluster on your machine. Each container then has its own code-server instance. </p>

<p>This is similar to the previous approach with the exception being that it would be easier to migrate to a production Kubernetes environment (i.e. Google Kubernetes Engine) if needed.</p>

<h3>Pros</h3>

<ul>
<li>Only requires one machine</li>
<li>Configuration is simple</li>
</ul>

<h3>Cons</h3>

<ul>
<li>May use lots of RAM</li>
<li>Possible limit to number of users</li>
</ul>

<p>Similar to the previous approach, it can work for small teams but you may run into limitations and need more machines.</p>

<h2>Running Coder</h2>

<p><a href="https://github.com/coder/coder">Coder</a> is our solution to this problem: a tool that provisions remote development environments via Terraform. With this solution, you can also support multiple IDEs beyond code-server including:</p>

<ul>
<li>JetBrains</li>
<li>VS Code Remote SSH</li>
<li>JupyterLab</li>
<li>Emacs</li>
<li>Vim</li>
</ul>

<p>Coder is a flexible solution to manage all the above solutions so it’s not exactly an alternative. But it does have more features out-of-the-box and is much easier to set up. Taken from our <a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder-oss/latest/about/architecture">docs</a>, here’s a diagram with more details:</p>


<h3>Pros</h3>

<ul>
<li>Only requires one machine</li>
<li>Install a single binary</li>
<li>Extensible via Terraform</li>
<li>Includes authentication, user management, and audit logging</li>
<li>Supports other IDEs beyond code-server</li>
</ul>

<h3>Cons</h3>

<ul>
<li>Requires beginner to intermediate knowledge of Terraform</li>
</ul>

<p>There’s definitely some bias here but this is the most proven solution for providing code-server to large teams in a way that scales. It’s dogfooded, battle-tested, and used by large enterprise companies whose names you probably know. Even if you’re not sure, it’s worth exploring this route. </p>

<h2>Resources</h2>

<p>For more in-depth info on these approaches, take a look at the following resources:</p>

<ul>
<li>code-server Discussions

<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/discussions/5761">Can I share a code-server instance for multiple, isolated users?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/discussions/3420">Can you have multiple users?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/discussions/2280">Multiple instances on same server?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/discussions/5761">Can I share a code-server instance for multiple, isolated users?</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder-oss/latest">Coder docs</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Summary</h2>

<p>As you can see, there are various options for running code-server with multiple users. We covered the pros and cons of each solution. It’s up to you and your team to decide which will work best for your needs.</p>

<p>If you&#39;re interested in setting up <a href="https://github.com/coder/coder">Coder</a> for your team and need help, join our <a href="https://discord.gg/coder">Discord</a>.</p>

<p>Good luck to you and your team! Happy coding!</p>


In this article, we’ll explore various solutions to using code-server with multiple users. Think of this as a high-level overview of real-world approaches to solving this problem. All solutions are based on real things we’ve seen in the community.

Photo by Billy Huynh on Unsplash

Using code-server with Multiple Users

<p>By day, I’m Joe Previte, a TypeScript engineer at Coder who maintains <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server">code-server</a>. By night, I’m “Joe the instructor.” I create educational content for developers like <a href="https://vimforvscode.com/">Vim for VS Code</a> and <a href="https://www.typescriptcourse.com/">TypeScript Course</a> while also balancing making courses for <a href="https://egghead.io/">egghead.io</a>.</p>

<p>I use <a href="https://github.com/coder/coder">Coder</a> as a tool in my workflow for creating educational content - I want to give you tips and tricks of how I do this so you can try it too.</p>

<h2>Dedicated Development Environment for Teaching</h2>

<p>As a software instructor, it’s a pain managing two sets of VS Code and terminal settings. I have one for everyday and one for teaching. The worst thing is finding out I used the wrong settings after recording a 3-hour course. I decided to fix this by using a dedicated development environment for teaching.</p>

<h3>What’s Coder?</h3>

<p>TL;DR we provision software development environments via Terraform on Linux, macOS, Windows, X86, ARM, and of course, Kubernetes. We turn stuff on and turn it off - <a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder-oss/latest/quickstart">no matter the cloud</a>. Thus it enables you, as the developer, to have full control of your development environment and use whichever 3rd party cloud resource you want.</p>

<p>Want to teach on a Windows-based machine? Easy. Modify your template, spin up a new workspace and you’re good to go.</p>

<p>Coder, the platform, is a single golang binary (which is also available as a docker image). Getting up and running is simple. Follow <a href="https://github.com/coder/coder#getting-started">these instructions</a> to get started.</p>

<h3>The Setup</h3>

<p>At Coder, we dogfood our own products. The engineering team has their own Coder deployment running at <a href="https://dev.coder.com">dev.coder.com</a>. Each developer has their own workspace based on <a href="https://github.com/coder/coder/tree/main/dogfood">this template</a> which has everything we might need for writing TypeScript, Node or Go.</p>

<p>I decided to use the same template to create a separate workspace for my course work. </p>

<p><img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/19109/1667849528-coder-workspace.png" alt="screenshot of Coder workspace called egghead" height="400"/></p>

<p>One of my favorite features of Coder is the scheduled <a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder-oss/latest/workspaces#auto-start">auto-on</a> and <a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder-oss/latest/workspaces#auto-stop">auto-off</a> features. I usually record a video or two in the morning before work. </p>

<p><img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/19109/1667849537-auto-on-off.png" alt="screenshot showing workspace schedule"></p>

<p>With this, my workspace starts up around 8am. It automatically shuts off after an hour if there is no activity. This means cloud resource costs stay low and I won’t ever experience bill shock of leaving stuff on accidentally. It’s a small detail but this automation is one less thing for me to think about so I can focus on my course materials.</p>

<h3>Keeping a Distraction-Free IDE</h3>

<p>One of the most important things to do as an instructor is making sure the visuals support the learner. I learned this tip from the egghead team - they even published their <a href="https://howtoegghead.com/instructor">instructor guide online</a>. This taught me the best way to teach technical content to others.</p>

<p>One of the best things you can do as an instructor is make sure your IDE is <em>distraction-free</em>. The terminal should only show what is needed for the lesson and the IDE should support the teaching materials. </p>

<p>While Coder supports Emacs, Vim, plain ol’ SSH or any IDE, I choose VS Code because that’s my preference. Whichever you use, the theme should use accessible colors. Your font should be legible, even for small screens.</p>

<p>These aren’t the same settings you’d use for everyday coding. Normally, as a video creator, I would have to double-check auto suggestions are turned off. Bump the font-size a lot. Hide all non-essential information in my IDE. With coder, I can use a dedicated workspace with everything pre-configured for screen-recording. Here’s an example of what that looks like:</p>

<p><img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/19109/1667849542-ide.png" alt="screenshot showing code-server IDE in Coder workspace" height="400"/></p>

<p>To me, this feels like having a virtual laptop that’s pre-configured for recording. I don’t have to worry, “is my font big enough?” or “Did I hide the noise in the terminal?” None of that because it’s already ready to go.</p>

<h3>My Recording Workflow</h3>

<p>As mentioned before, I open up my PC and sign-in to my recording profile. Then I open the code-server PWA (which is installed from my Coder workspace) and thanks to auto-start, it’s running and ready to go. I hit “Start recording” in OBS and I get into the flow.</p>

<p>When I’m done recording, I let my Coder workspace shut-off automatically (keeps costs down for the organization) and I open Camtasia to edit my videos. After editing, I publish online and share the course content with my community.</p>

<p>That’s it! It’s a simple flow and it works really well.</p>

<h2>Resources</h2>

<p>These are great resources for getting started with Coder workspaces:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/coder/coder">coder/coder GitHub repo</a></li>
<li><a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder-oss/latest/install/install.sh">Coder install script docs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.coder.com/chat">Coder Discord community</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Lastly, feel free to use me as a resource if you have more questions. You can <a href="https://twitter.com/jsjoeio">tweet at me</a> or email me at <a href="mailto:joe@coder.com">joe@coder.com</a> - I’d love to hear from you!</p>

<h2>Summary</h2>

<p>The ability to spin up or spin down a workspace for me has been amazing. I love that I can have a dedicated “machine” for teaching. I can spend less time tinkering with my development environment and more time focused on what I enjoy most - teaching others. It’s even inspired me to create a <a href="https://twitter.com/jsjoeio/status/1578800514191351808?s=20&t=foWye6uI2pOBuO_hBlW48w">dedicated user on my OS</a> now! I highly recommend giving Coder a try for yourself if you’re an instructor. I guarantee you’re going to like it.</p>


In this article, Joe Previte explains how he uses Coder to maintain a dedicated development environment specific for teaching his courses.

Development Environments for Teaching

Creating a Dedicated Development Environment for Teaching

<p>2021 was an awesome year for the <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server">code-server</a> project. We improved our testing infrastructure, refactored the backend to use VS Code upstream, and welcomed a handful of new contributors!</p>

<h2>Major Wins</h2>

<p>We’d love to share the wins with you. Here they are:</p>

<h3>📈 Added Test Coverage and Increased from 46.86% → 66%</h3>

<p>In January, we migrated our unit tests from <a href="%5Bhttps://github.com/cdr/code-server/pull/2564%5D(https://github.com/cdr/code-server/pull/2564)">Mocha to Jest</a>. The switch allows us to move quicker since the team has more experience with Jest. We added <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/pull/3194">Codecov in April</a> to track coverage. We started at 46.86% coverage and have since then increased it to 66%. It currently leads the way in terms of highest coverage across <code>coder</code> repos.</p>

<h3>↔️ Added End-to-End Testing</h3>

<p>In February, we <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/pull/2643">added end-to-end testing</a> with Playwright. This has allowed us to become more confident when releasing.</p>

<p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TievHqIo-wwbd9vavAZI8PNzE1XqbhUd/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TievHqIo-wwbd9vavAZI8PNzE1XqbhUd/view?usp=sharing</a></p>

<h3>📔 Created <code>deploy-code-server</code> repo</h3>

<p>In March, @bpmct took on the initiative to launch <code>deploy-code-server</code> — a collection of one-click buttons and scripts for deploying code-server to various cloud hosting platforms. As of Dec. 14, this has 317 forks. </p>


<h3>🔨 Rewrote VS Code Integration to Lean on Upstream</h3>

<p>In November, we <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/pull/4414">rewrote our VS Code integration</a> to lean more heavily on their server. This means fewer patches. We&#39;re still working on reducing our patches, but as of right now, there are <a href="https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/compare/main...cdr:main">only 51 changes</a> that have been changed compared to upstream.</p>


<h3>🌟 +13,173 New GitHub Stars</h3>

<p>On December 11th, 2020, <code>coder/code-server</code> had 37,290 stars. Today it has +50,463. </p>


Source: http://www.gitstarhistory.com/#cdr/code-server

<h3>🫂 Around 215 Merged PRs from Community</h3>

<p>According to <a href="https://orbit.love">Orbit</a>, in the last 12 months we&#39;ve had 215 merged PRs by members of the code-server community.</p>


<h3>💞 More Engagement from and with the Community</h3>

<p>This year, we&#39;ve focused on communicating more updates to ya&#39;ll about the progress, what we&#39;re working on and <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/discussions/4603#discussioncomment-1800030">how you can help</a>. We&#39;ve done this through a combination of <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/milestones">Milestones</a> and <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/discussions">Discussions</a>. The response from everyone has been extremely supportive. </p>


<h2>Summary</h2>

<p>Big thank you to everyone who contributed and used code-server in 2021. Let&#39;s have another great year in 2022! 🎉</p>


2021 was an awesome year for the code-server project.

code-server 2021 Year in Review

Ben Potter

VP of Product

<p>Last week, we released <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/releases">code-server 4.0</a>. This is a big milestone for the project because it’s our first major release since <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server/releases/tag/3.0.0">March 2020</a>. Here’s what changed.</p>

<h2>New VS Code Architecture 👨🏼‍💻</h2>

<p>For those unfamiliar with code-server, it’s an open-source project that runs VS Code in the web browser. We’ve gone through <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/pull/857">a</a> <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/releases/tag/3.0.0">few</a> <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/pull/2476">iterations</a> of patching the VS Code to support running on the web.</p>

<p>Recently, the VS Code team has open-sourced many of the core <a href="https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/src/vs/server">components of the web server</a>. Because of this, we’ve moved to a fork-based workflow so that we are able to support new VS Code versions faster, and leverage the <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server/pull/4414">upstream server</a>. ⚡</p>

<h2>Open-VSX Extension Registry 📦</h2>

<p>Microsoft’s extension marketplace is proprietary and limited to use within Microsoft products. This means that unofficial forks such as code-server, openvscode-server, and VSCodium cannot use the marketplace.</p>

<p>Our previous workaround was to maintain our own extension marketplace, this worked for a while but became fragile and unreliable. We opted for the better solution: using the <a href="https://open-vsx.org/">Open-VSX registry</a>. This is now the default extension marketplace for code-server. </p>


<p>We’ve previously documented using open-vsx with code-server, but we’re pretty excited about it being the default option now. Here’s why:</p>

<ul>
<li>Python, C++, CLang, and other language extensions will “just work” 🙌🏼</li>
<li>Many extensions are published and maintained on Open VSX. Our custom registry had to automatically, or often manually pull open-source extensions from GitHub </li>
<li>OpenVSX <a href="https://github.com/eclipse/openvsx/issues/249">added support for web extensions</a>, so code-server users can use their favorite extensions with no issues 🎉</li>
<li>Extensions are available across IDEs (Eclipse Theia, openvscode-server, etc). Users will not need to change their workflow if they switch IDEs</li>
</ul>

<h2>50,000 GitHub stars 🌟</h2>

<p>2021 was a pretty awesome year for code-server. For starters, we hit 50,000 GitHub stars! The project had 86 unique contributors and 748 users participated in issues. Two open source maintainers (<a href="https://github.com/jsjoeio">jsjoeio</a> and <a href="https://github.com/TeffenEllis">TeffenEllis</a>) also joined in 2021. Stay tuned for an in-depth “year in review” for code-server!</p>

<h2>Next steps</h2>

<p>Our next priority for code-server is to assess our changes compared to upstream VS Code and see if we can remove as much as possible. That way, we are more aligned with upstream and can also submit patches upstream 🎉</p>

<p>Big thank you to everyone in the community who contributed to code-server 4.0! We couldn’t have done it without you.</p>


Last week, we released code-server 4.0. This is a big milestone for the project because it’s our first major release since March 2020. 

code-server 4.0

<p>One of the most important pieces of your development environment is your keyboard shortcuts. If you’re like me, you probably modified some of the defaults to your liking.</p>

<p>Moving your workspace to the cloud means you have to bring your VS Code keyboard shortcuts along with you!</p>

<p>To do this in Coder, all you have to do is add this line to your <a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder/latest/workspaces/personalization">personalize or install script</a>:</p>

<pre><code class="shell">cp -f keybindings.json /home/coder/.local/share/code-server/User/keybindings.json
</code></pre>

<p><em>Note: this assumes you have a file called <code>keybindings.json</code> at the root of your workspace or dotfiles repo and you’re okay with overwriting the <code>keybindings.json</code> in your current workspace. (the <code>-f</code> is for <code>--force</code> and overwrites the existing file when copying).</em></p>

<p>For those that want us to walk you through the whole process — start to finish — read on!</p>

<h2>Create a dotfiles repository and personalize script</h2>

<p>If you’re not familiar with dotfiles, it’s a repo where you get your workflow settings for things like your shell (zsh, bash, etc.), git, and other things. </p>

<ol>
<li>Create a repo called <code>dotfiles</code></li>
<li>Add a new file called <code>install.sh</code> at the root, make sure it’s executable</li>
<li>Copy this code and paste it into <code>install.sh</code></li>
</ol>

<pre><code class="shell">#!/bin/sh

echo &quot;--Running install script&quot;

echo “Hello world!”
</code></pre>

<p>Check out the Coder docs to <a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder/v1.23/workspaces/personalization">read more about the personalize and install scripts</a>.</p>

<h2>Save VS Code Keyboard Shortcuts to dotfiles</h2>

<p>The first thing you need to do is save your current keyboard shortcuts from VS Code. To do this, follow these steps inside VS Code:</p>

<ol>
<li>Command Palette &gt; &quot;Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)&quot;</li>
<li>Copy everything in this file and save it to a file at the root of your dotfiles repo called <code>keybindings.json</code> </li>
</ol>

<p>Commit this and push it up to the remote so we can use it in the next step.</p>

<h2>Modify Install Script</h2>

<p>Now we need to modify our install script so that it uses our new <code>keybindings.json</code> and puts it in the right place after building our Workspace.</p>

<p>In your <code>install.sh</code> script, add this line:</p>

<pre><code class="shell">cp -f keybindings.json /home/coder/.local/share/code-server/User/keybindings.json
</code></pre>


<p>This says, “copy this file keybindings.json to this location and overwrite if the file already exists.”</p>

<p>And here is a breakdown of that command:
* <code>cp</code> is the copy command
* <code>-f</code> (also <code>--force</code>) is the flag to force by overwriting the file if it already exists
* <code>keybindings.json</code> is the file we’re copying
* <code>/home/coder/.local/share/code-server/User/keybindings.json</code> is the location where we’re copying to. This is also the location where Code Web (code-server) expects to find any custom keyboard shortcuts.</p>

<h2>Test in Workspace</h2>

<p>The last step in this process is testing our changes in our workspace.</p>

<ol>
<li>If your dotfiles repo is private, make sure you’ve configured Git OAuth in Coder and linked your account</li>
<li>Navigate to your workspace in the Coder dashboard</li>
<li>Click the pencil icon to edit the Workspace</li>
<li>Scroll down to Advanced</li>
<li>Under “Location of Git repository containing dotfiles”, add the SSH URL for your dotfiles</li>
<li>Make sure it starts with “git@github” instead of “https”</li>
<li>Click Rebuild Workspace</li>
<li>Open up Code Web</li>
<li>Command Palette &gt; &quot;Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)&quot;</li>
</ol>


<p>You’ll see your keyboard shortcuts that you saved previously! </p>

<p>Woohoo! 🎉</p>

<p>Hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial. If you did, tag <a href="https://twitter.com/coderhq">@CoderHQ</a> on Twitter and let us know one keyboard shortcut you think more people should use!</p>


One of the most important pieces of your development environment is your keyboard shortcuts. Moving your workspace to the cloud means you'll want to bring your VS Code keyboard shortcuts along with you! Here's how to do it.

Using custom VS Code keyboard shortcuts with Coder

<p>“We’re going to send this to Apple and you should get it back in 5-7 business days.”</p>

<p>And this is how the first work week of 2021 started for me — my brand new MacBook Pro keyboard was unusable and out of my possession for what could be two weeks. Fortunately, my coworker had sent me an iPad testing device a few days prior. The timing couldn’t have been better. </p>

<p>I made a decision.</p>

<p>I insisted to my manager and HR that I could use the iPad while I waited for my laptop to be repaired instead of letting them send me a new laptop. Plus, it gave me an excuse to answer the question, “Could I work and develop full-time off an iPad?”</p>

<p>Here’s what I learned. </p>

<h3>You can use an External Monitor, Keyboard, and Mouse</h3>

<p>My home office setup includes:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-ultrasharp-49-curved-monitor-u4919dw/apd/210-arnw/monitors-monitor-accessories">Dell UltraSharp 49 Inch Curved Monitor</a></li>
<li><a href="https://gaming.kinesis-ergo.com/product/freestyle-edge/">Kinesis Freestyle Edge RGB Keyboard</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/mice/mx-vertical-ergonomic-mouse.910-005447.html">Logitech MX Vertical Mouse</a></li>
</ul>

<p>At first I thought I couldn’t use these with the iPad. After some trial and error, it turns out you can! I connected the keyboard via USB to the monitor and then the monitor via USB-C to the iPad and it “just works.” The mouse was easy to connect via bluetooth.</p>

<p>The iPad mirrors the display to the monitor, which means you don’t get the screen real estate you do with a laptop, but it’s better than nothing. There were also some apps which would not mirror to the external monitor — most notably the <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hey-email/id1506603805">HEY email app</a> and the <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/github/id1477376905">GitHub app</a>.</p>

<h3>VS Code on iPad feels like magic</h3>

<p>I still can’t believe you can use VS Code on an iPad. Using Coder, I created an environment for me to work on <a href="https://github.com/cdr/code-server">code-server</a>.  I was then able to install the editor (code-server) as a PWA and use VS Code as if it were a native app on iOS. The experience is magical. You feel powerful, like you can take your editor anywhere you’d like. And thanks to the Dev URLs, I can run apps on any port, and create a Dev URL to access them from the browser. This made my life a lot easier.</p>

<h3>iPads as Devices are Portable and Powerful</h3>

<p>The battery of the iPad surprised me. It felt like it lasted way longer than I would have expected. The performance felt fast. There was hardly ever any lag. With the <a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MXQT2LL/A/magic-keyboard-for-ipad-air-4th-generation-and-ipad-pro-11-inch-2nd-generation-us-english">Magic Keyboard</a>, I felt like I could take the iPad anywhere and start coding. It was liberating. In addition, I loved having the cmd + shift + 4 shortcut for taking screenshots and the <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207935">built-in screen recording</a> added in iOS 14.</p>

<h3>I didn’t have much use for the Apple Pencil</h3>

<p>Along with the Magic Keyboard, I had the Apple Pencil at my disposal with my iPad. Unfortunately, I didn’t find much use for it. I am not blaming Apple or the iPad for that, but rather myself. I think if I were more of a designer, there would be use. Or if I were a student in college taking notes, I could use it. I didn’t have much use for it and can’t say I recommend it to fellow developers considering a full-time iPad setup. </p>

<h3>Browsers are Inconsistent</h3>

<p>Sadly, one of my main frustrations was the lack of consistency for browsers on iOS. My preferred browser is Firefox, but there were a number of bugs which caused me to switch over to Chrome. The keyboard shortcuts I was used to from working on a desktop did not always map over to the iOS apps, which slowed down my workflow significantly. There are also a number of UX-related issues for mobile apps. Chrome wasn’t perfect, but it was better than Safari in most aspects. My one wish: make a browser that is consistent across platforms and stable. </p>

<h3>Use the PWA and Gain Control Over Keyboard Shortcuts</h3>

<p>If you’re going to work off an iPad and write code, being able to download your editor either as a native app or a PWA is a must. This is the only way for you to get keyboard shortcuts that don’t conflict with global or app shortcuts.</p>

<p>Once I started using the <a href="https://coder.com/docs/workspaces/pwa">PWA</a> for Coder’s editor, my workflow levels approached normalcy. I had to manually add a lot of keyboard shortcuts to my settings in VS Code/code-server. Once I did, I felt like I was back in my usual flow. </p>

<h3>Inspect Browser is a Tool You Need</h3>

<p>When you’re developing on iPad and using the standard iOS browser apps (Chrome, Safari, Firefox), you don’t have access to the developer tools. This means you need a workaround. The best one I found was an app for purchase ($6.99) called <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/inspect-browser/id1203594958">Inspect Browser</a>. Although the UX isn’t that of your standard browser devtools, it succeeds in filling the gap. It provides you with the ability to look at the console and inspect elements. There are more features but those were the two it helped me with the most.</p>

<h2>Summarizing My Experience of Coding on an iPad</h2>

<p>As the line between workstation and mobile device continues to blur, the coding/development experience on an iPad is coming closer and closer to providing a full, desktop-like experience, in a tiny package. </p>

<p>Overall, I really enjoyed the two weeks I spent developing on an iPad full-time. There were many moments I wanted to give up and ask HR to send me a laptop, but I’m glad I stuck with it. </p>

<p>For any developers considering buying an iPad, or trying to use there existing iPad as a supplemental tool for development, the main takeaways I would highlight are:</p>

<h3>Positives</h3>

<ul>
<li>You can access a full-fledged IDE experience both online and offline (as a PWA)</li>
<li>The Magic Keyboard does a great job of delivering a credible laptop experience</li>
<li>Having USB-C &amp; Bluetooth functionality means that you can use all of the workstation devices you usually rely on (monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc)</li>
</ul>

<h3>Frustrations</h3>

<ul>
<li>Mobile browsers (Firefox, Chrome, &amp; Safari) are still lacking in comparison to their desktop counterparts</li>
<li>If you rely on browser inspection, options are limited</li>
<li>Workflow configuration (shortcuts etc) can take some time to set up</li>
</ul>

<p>Now that I have a greater understanding of the iPad workflow from a developer perspective, I hope I can translate that into product improvements that make the iPad coding experience for Coder and code-server users even better. </p>


<p>Thanks for reading! It would mean a lot to me if you <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%22I%20developed%20on%20an%20iPad%20for%20two%20weeks.%20Here&#x27;s%20what%20I%20learned%22%20by%20%40jsjoeio%20%F0%9F%9A%80%20%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fcoder.com%2Fblog%2Fi-developed-on-an-ipad-for-two-weeks">shared this post on Twitter</a>. If you have questions or want to get in touch, feel free to <a href="https://twitter.com/messages/compose?recipient_id=1567529924&text=Hey!%20I%20read%20your%20article%20about%20working%20off%20an%20iPad.%20">shoot me a DM</a> on Twitter. </p>


Learn what it’s like to code exclusively using an iPad for two weeks straight, using Coder to remotely develop on VS Code as if it was a native iPad app. 

AI-native Development

Secure Environments for 2,500+ Developers

Joe Previte

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Creating a Dedicated Development Environment for Teaching

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