Investigate application of OpenVSCode in Web IDE

Background

In September 2021, Gitpod announced the open source project OpenVSCode Server, making it possible to run VSCode on a remote machine and access it via a web browser.

How it relates to Web IDE

The GitLab Web IDE is well-suited for a number of tasks, but without access to a server-side runtime, we can't implement features that require code compilation or computation. And while we share a common foundation, Monaco does not deliver on all the features and access to extensions that VSCode offers.

Could the Web IDE use OpenVSCode Server?

Not exactly, at least not without significant investment. If I (@ericschurter) understand correctly, we would still need to have some level of server-side development environment. Gitpod is well positioned to offer this kind of infrastructure, but running this on GitLab SaaS and Self-managed installs would require significant investment.