[aleph_minus_one]

> There is a direct cost to Microsoft that these companies are pushing on them. Specifically around bandwidth.

If Microsoft were not be very willing to bear this cost, they would never have built a marketplace into VS Code.

[infecto]

I don’t understand this argument. So because MSFT is large and has healthy margins they should eat the cost?

[aleph_minus_one]

> So because MSFT is large and has healthy margins they should eat the cost?

If MSFT weren't willing to bear the cost, they wouldn't use the "app store" concept (marketplace) for VS Code.

[infecto]

I don’t understand this line of thinking. Because they run a marketplace for Vs code they should also support paywalled forks?

[aleph_minus_one]

> Because they run a marketplace for Vs code they should also support paywalled forks?

Since, because of the marketplace, MSFT (somewhat) "monopolized" the access to extensions, they should not block other applications (forks) that also attempt to access the marketplace.

[nrb]

Those quotes around monopolized are really doing some heavy lifting considering that it is utterly trivial to use alternative marketplaces on (edit: flavors of) VS Code.

Seems to me this is plainly the community wanting its cake and to eat it too.