In simple terms, Source code of VSCode is open source, But compiled binaries provided by microsoft is not. So if you want a true open source edition, you can compile the source code yourself. AURin arch and eopkg on solus are actually compiled by community, hence they are covered by ms branding restrictions not their binary restrictions. In solus, (AFAIK in arch too) Telemetry are disabled by default and you can opt-in to that if you want. VSCodium has an additional benefit of not using their branding. But I do give credit to them for initial spark on this discussion about ambiguous marketing by these tech giants.
In simple terms, Source code of VSCode is open source, But compiled binaries provided by microsoft is not. So if you want a true open source edition, you can compile the source code yourself.
AURin arch andeopkgon solus are actually compiled by community, hence they are covered by ms branding restrictions not their binary restrictions. In solus, (AFAIK in arch too) Telemetry are disabled by default and you can opt-in to that if you want. VSCodium has an additional benefit of not using their branding. But I do give credit to them for initial spark on this discussion about ambiguous marketing by these tech giants.This has been discussed before here on dev dev.to/twitmyreview/issues-with-vs... . Here is what I commented there.