Am I the only one that thinks it’s ironic that a company called “bubble” just raised $100M?
No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
151–160 of 327 posts
Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, the solution is open-source no-code that can be self hosted: Budibase, Baserow, Appsmith, Saltcorn (shameless plug).
> "Yes, the solution is open-source no-code that can be self hosted" So those who can't code are then expected to self-host? The lock-in is clearly a part of the business model.
At least two of those (Budibase and Saltcorn) are available as one-click apps on DigitalOcean. Saltcorn has users with no coding skills who have done this, budibase probably does as well.
I have zero interest in running a hosting business
Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
#153Am I the only one that thinks it’s ironic that a company called “bubble” just raised $100M?
No, you're not.
Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, the solution is open-source no-code that can be self hosted: Budibase, Baserow, Appsmith, Saltcorn (shameless plug).
> "Yes, the solution is open-source no-code that can be self hosted" So those who can't code are then expected to self-host? The lock-in is clearly a part of the business model.
I could see that use case inside a business though, where your non-developer staff can build their own line of business apps and your normal ops people can deploy them internally. I guess the other tradeoff there is support though.
Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
#155I think the biggest problem with this approach is at some point, they necessarily reach a level of complexity that it takes the same amount of time to learn how to use their "no-code" tools than it does to just learn how to code.
I think the problem is that you don't need a "mature" product to make millions of dollars. It's similar to Shopify, I can put up a store in ~20 mins and start selling immediately. I would be extremely misguided to try to "build an platform" when that problem has already been solved. Same with no-code. Why code it from scratch when it's been solved already? If you want to go super deep, sure. Seems like the hate comes…
The problem here is that if Bubble gets _huge_ before solving the very obvious performance problems, the web is going to be in an even worse place than it is today. That Goodgigs site has a first load weight of over 5mb, when it could really be done in much less.
I truly appreciate the problem these platforms are trying to solve, but they're just not there yet. I wouldn't say it's easy to build a no-code platform, but it's much easier without the constraint of needing the output to have good performance - that's the hard part.
Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
#156[deleted]
Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have seen simple things in Open Source Programs that I know I could track down and fix. Off by one errors, modulus stuff and such. Do open source projects have an obvious "run this script to configure your complete dev environment in respect to this project" ? I would be happy to spin up a new VM for every project on that basis.
>Do open source projects have an obvious "run this script to configure your complete dev environment in respect to this project" ? ./configure
That's not even close to being accurate. The real workflow looks more like this:
1) Install an appropriate compiler toolchain.
2) Install whatever other tools are needed (like pkgconfig).
3) Install the necessary *-dev packages for the library dependencies.
4) Figure out which options to pass to configure to include the features you want and exclude the features you don't want.
5) ./configure
6) Go back to step 3 because you had a wrong *-dev package version, or you missed a library you care about.
7) ./configure
8) make
9) Diagnose the error messages and scream in frustration, because the compiler you installed in step 1 is too old/too new/too not gcc.
10) Install gcc version x.y.z
11) ./configure
12) make
13) Get the same error messages, because you didn't deinstall the first compiler and configure helpfully selected it again.
14) Give up in disgust and let someone else fix the bug you found.
Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
#158Am I the only one that thinks it’s ironic that a company called “bubble” just raised $100M?
I was looking for this exact comment.
Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just like everyone who thinks no-code solutions are a good idea, you are fundamentally misunderstanding what programmers do. We're not assembly-line workers banging out code as the product. The assembly line is the compiler. We're researchers, engineers, and artists; the code is the design document. You're saying you'd like the sandwich maker at Subway to make you a brand new sandwich that has never existed before wi…
From my understanding the OP was addressing using English to code and how that might look at the fundamental level. Not critiquing or misunderstanding what software developers do day-to-day. It’s instead about different layers of abstraction. Which is the world we work in as programmers and one normal languages meant for communicating to other people is ill suited for and would be way more overly detailed.
So what OP is doing he is disregarding how complex the world is.
He is disregarding how much effort and how many moving pieces are needed to have an employee with which you can order a sandwich and have it done the same way each time.
For starters you have to have ingredients ready, standard ways of storing them and much more. That is what Subway worked on for years to have standards and be able to hire someone to "make a sandwich".
OP disregards that people hired in McD or Subway get !detailed! instructions how to make a sandwich and which ingredients should be put in which type of sandwich. Then their workplace is optimized to do so.
List of ingredients is very limited as list of sandwiches you can order in Subway. List of ingredients in software is unlimited and there is no standard workplace and people imagination about what software to build is unlimited.
There is lots of magical thinking in OP comment. He would like to magically remove all those layers of abstraction and gives simplified example, that breaks down when you think about that example more than 1 minute.
Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M
#160Can someone help me understand the no-code movement and what supposedly has changed in the last few years? I know Microsoft tried to allow non-developers to create apps without developers, and they have been trying for decades. But failed! They built an app that allowed you to drag and drop blocks, and they tried a visual query builder(not sure what the exact name was) for SQL. They added a workflow builder to ShareP…
I design and develop a no-code tool [1] for the last 7 years. I see many software developers on HN struggle to understand the point of no-code. I'll try to explain. First of all, no-code tools are not intended for developers. Although, developers can and do benefit from them by using them occasionally for prototyping and mundane automations. The main beneficiaries of no-code tools are "citizen developers" - people wh…
Well said. No code tools can work brilliantly when they are aimed at a specific domain and don't try to be too general.