Code-server: Publish free file releases

[nhooyr]

nbin is complicated and has caused a significant issues and impedes debugging.

We should publish free file releases for every platform and on the docker container in particular we ought to just not release an nbin based release.

cc @kylecarbs

[nhooyr]

Related #529

[nhooyr]

So we're gonna start release debs/rpms

[nhooyr]

So the other issue here is windows support for nbin @kylecarbs

[nhooyr]

Another annoying problem is the file paths reported are those in CI instead of those on the user's computer, e.g. the typescript version bundled says its in /drone which is confusing.

[sr229]

AFAIK this is similar to pkg with their snapshot-based file system approach so I think we do save the path since its what the path was during build time.

[orditeck]

What impact would it have on how easy code-server is easy to upgrade/revert back to previous version?

Right now I download the new binary, exit the old process, run the new binary then check if everything works. If not, I just relaunch the old binary and plan time to look into what's wrong with the new one.

I'm just curious.

Thanks!

[nhooyr]

Should be just as easy, just have to tar -xzf first.

[orditeck]

Awesome, so same as right now. Thanks!

[nhooyr]

nbin def offers nothing, see https://github.com/cdr/code-server/releases

We distribute as zips/tars anyway lol @kylecarbs

[nhooyr]

We'll also need a Mac DMG and a windows installer.

[nhooyr]

We're only going to support linux moving forward. See #1332

[nhooyr]

We're going to add a multi platform installer.

[maxloh]

We're only going to support linux moving forward. See #1332

Are we going to get Windows release or not?

[sr229]

We're only going to support linux moving forward. See #1332

Are we going to get Windows release or not?

Based on our CI support, we can't build Windows images, so there won't be a Windows-compatible tarball for your to use at the moment. I suggest using WSL instead to workaround this.

[nhooyr]

Based on our CI support, we can't build Windows images, so there won't be a Windows-compatible tarball for your to use at the moment. I suggest using WSL instead to workaround this.

Please don't use "we" without consulting myself, @kylecarbs or @code-asher. Us there are the only ones that can make statements on the future of code-server.

We will provide windows releases @maxloh with this issue.

[nhooyr]

@kylecarbs I don't believe this has been taken care of yet, we have no windows release for 3.0.

[kylecarbs]

I'm not sure we're ready to provide great support for Windows yet. None of us @cdr develop on Windows, so it feels like a risky thing to provide support. I feel like this issue should be closed with v3.0.0 released.

[nhooyr]

While I agree it's risky, I think the risk is minimal, especially considering how many times users have asked for it. It's super easy for us to run windows with parallels occasionally to test, we already have a yearly license. nbin was the only blocker for this anyway.

See https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/259

None of our code is platform specific anyway and VS Code itself supports windows. Same reason why I opted against abandoning Mac support. https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/1332

Also, we still need a .deb for linux and the npm package. I'll make new issues for those.

[nhooyr]

Opened a new issue tracking windows.