If the sysadmin has blocked install of VSCode for security reason, I would also expect (s)he also blocked access to the special API that gives access to local files from browser.
Working on locked down machine where you are not allowed to have visual code? Seriously?
Working on a chromebook? Why?
Sorry to be negative but I feel sometimes you tech guys get excited about solutions to problems that doesn't actually exist in the real world.
Problems that don't exist, or that you personally don't have?
Why is enabling development on a Chromebook a bad thing? You ask "Why?", but it seems a more reasonable question to me is: "Why not?" This seems to pull one of the bricks away from "why not?" for working on a Chromebook. I don't see why that's a bad thing.
It's not a lifestyle that I want for myself, but that doesn't mean I don't respect those folks as "decent developers". It takes a lot of fortitude to build software in those sorts of constraints.
It's going to happen, and it doesn't matter much if employees like it or not.
That is a typical enterprise setup, thin clients with development taking place on a beefy server.
For Windows systems, you get a VM with RDP or Citrix access.
And native cloud development, is exactly the UNIX/VMS/.... model with fancy UI.
That said, I do a lot of professional software engineering with a Chromebook and a Linux server, so.
"This simple gateway to the local machine quickly opens some interesting scenarios for using VS Code for the Web as a zero-installation local development tool, such as:
* Local file viewing and editing. Quickly take notes (and preview!) in Markdown. Even if you are on a restricted machine where you cannot install the full VS Code, you may still be able to use vscode.dev to view and edit local files.
* Build client-side HTML, JavaScript, and CSS applications in conjunction with the browser tools for debugging.
* Edit your code on lower powered machines like Chromebooks, where you can't (easily) install VS Code.
* Develop on your iPad. You can upload/download files (and even store them in the cloud using the Files app), as well as open repositories remotely with the built-in GitHub Repositories extension."
Also various interesting URLs are now possible:
"For example, change https://github.com/microsoft/vscode to 'https://vscode.dev/github.com/Microsoft/vscode'.
For Azure Repos, do the same. Change https://dev.azure.com/… to 'https://vscode.dev/dev.azure.com /…'."
"As you can see, vscode.dev URLs are a powerful way for us to deliver new, lightweight experiences. Another example is that Live Share guest sessions will also be available in the browser through the https://vscode.dev/liveshare URL. The sessionId will be passed to the extension to make joining a seamless experience."