Show HN: Open-source alternative to Retool • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Open-source alternative to Retool

#131

Post by rlnorthcutt » Mon, Nov 21, 2022, 6:29 PM UTC

alexthon87 wrote: post #127

rlnorthcutt wrote: post #120

Wow! It is great to see another low code, open source platform being launched. I’ve been involved with open source for over 25 years, and I am a big believer in the power of open source to accelerate development and empower people all over the world to build amazing things. I have built a career on OSS, and millions of others have as well. It is a game changer. In full transparency, I am the Head of DevRel at Appsmit…

open block definitely uses some of appsmith and retool's code. You can use the IDEA to do your own the functions, but please do not COPY & PASTE. Don't be copycat.

Open source is open source. There is nothing wrong with using and reusing open source code as long as it is within the bounds of the license. We have a permissive license for Appsmith on purpose - we want to share and inspire!

My question here is more about IF or HOW we, as a community, should improve how we reuse or extend open source code for commercial projects. I am very open to hearing all ideas - thanks.

Re: Show HN: Open-source alternative to Retool

#132

Post by rlnorthcutt » Mon, Nov 21, 2022, 6:34 PM UTC

shuaihan wrote: post #129

rlnorthcutt wrote: post #120

Wow! It is great to see another low code, open source platform being launched. I’ve been involved with open source for over 25 years, and I am a big believer in the power of open source to accelerate development and empower people all over the world to build amazing things. I have built a career on OSS, and millions of others have as well. It is a game changer. In full transparency, I am the Head of DevRel at Appsmit…

Thanks for your comment. co-founder of Openblocks here. To provide some background info, there are 19 files containing code from Appsmith currently, all of them are about data source integration and have been added the corresponding apache license text. I'm a super fan of open-source software. Nowadays no software can be built without the dependency on open-source projects. Openblocks have a direct dependency on doze…

I really appreciate you taking the time to share! The inclusion of the Appsmith name and license on the code used is a great example of how we can be more transparent and ensure proper attribution. Clearly, your team has given careful thought to this topic as well.

There are always so many ways to solve problems, and lots of approaches that are optimized for specific users, tech stacks, industries, etc. Personally, I find so much more value in the exploration of new ideas and different decisions (as you have done) than simply being a "clone" of another tool.

As we move more into this new space, the ability to share libraries and integration patterns could be super useful for us all. I'll be sure to highlight that internally!

Re: Show HN: Open-source alternative to Retool

#133

Post by rlnorthcutt » Mon, Nov 21, 2022, 6:38 PM UTC

vicsomething wrote: post #122

rlnorthcutt wrote: post #120

Wow! It is great to see another low code, open source platform being launched. I’ve been involved with open source for over 25 years, and I am a big believer in the power of open source to accelerate development and empower people all over the world to build amazing things. I have built a career on OSS, and millions of others have as well. It is a game changer. In full transparency, I am the Head of DevRel at Appsmit…

Lol, you should check this one too. Here: https://github.com/illacloud/illa-builder

While I think it is important to share new projects and even brag a bit about our own, I'm not clear on how this adds to the conversation? Illa has been mentioned multiple times here, so at this point it feels a bit spammy. As a developer, I feel like a little bit of self-promotion goes a long way. Hope this helps.

Re: Show HN: Open-source alternative to Retool

#134

Post by rlnorthcutt » Mon, Nov 21, 2022, 6:40 PM UTC

naj1n wrote: post #125

rlnorthcutt wrote: post #120

Wow! It is great to see another low code, open source platform being launched. I’ve been involved with open source for over 25 years, and I am a big believer in the power of open source to accelerate development and empower people all over the world to build amazing things. I have built a career on OSS, and millions of others have as well. It is a game changer. In full transparency, I am the Head of DevRel at Appsmit…

I think this will lead to OSS becoming a "finite game".

Can you expand on that a bit more? Do you think that more open source business models will lead to more rehashing of the same code/concepts over an over again?

I'm also curious how you think this may apply to the rise in AI coding projects. In theory, it will become possible to create complex software by simply describing it well, and much of that code from the AI training is open source.

Re: Show HN: Open-source alternative to Retool

#135

Post by rlnorthcutt » Mon, Nov 21, 2022, 6:47 PM UTC

jroes wrote: post #113

eropple wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that everyone should have SSO, and that includes small orgs. If you don't want your stuff used by small orgs that can't afford to pay, that's a totally reasonable standpoint. At the same time, though, if it's good they probably will use it despite not having SSO, and so that decision makessecurity (something that, by and large, benefits everyone) into an opt-in luxury good. Speaking only for me, I'd be…

I agree that orgs of all sizes should use SSO. The pricing should scale appropriately. But as we have seen, companies are not doing enough to secure the sustainability of the open source software they rely on for their businesses, and I think a balance needs to be struck.

One thing that Appsmith does is to offer Google and Github SSO for the open source version, and then SAML, OIDC, OAuth2 for the business edition. It can be very difficult to figure out where to draw the line, but I think looking at the needs of the individual developer vs a business team of devs is a good start.

Re: Show HN: Open-source alternative to Retool

#136

Post by rlnorthcutt » Mon, Nov 21, 2022, 6:54 PM UTC

alvis wrote: post #27

xnorswap wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What advanced features would be supported by a 3 year old Safari, a 4 year old Chrome, but not by Firefox? It's a kind of laziness that does the open web great harm by putting unnecessary barriers in front of Firefox users when they shouldn't be there. Feature detection for any newer APIs is far better. If you know you rely on a particular API set then you can test for precisely that. Otherwise let browsers be instea…

It's unfair to call the dev lazy on this ground. Even modern browsers are far better than the old days, there remain many discrepancies between browsers and they are still hard to come up with solutions that fit all platforms. Making a static web page work on different browsers is much easier than making a web app work on all the browsers. For a web app, even 1% of the API doesn't work, the whole app is a failure. Ca…

100% on this. Most startups are limited in resources, and even more so for opensource. Building a business means setting expectations and being clear on the scope of support. This is more than appropriate for a new product.

Personally, I would rather have a warning that FF "may" have issues, than no warning at all. Nothing is stopping a user form using FF if they want, and now they have a heads up.

As a long time open source user and contributor, I find it disappointing when some people can become entitled and complain about free software that doesn't exactly meet their expectations.

As mentioned elsewhere, the fact that it is open source means that anyone can potentially contribute... so if it is a large issue, then there is nothing stopping folks from trying to solve the problem themselves.

Re: Show HN: Open-source alternative to Retool

#137

Post by naj1n » Wed, Nov 23, 2022, 4:29 AM UTC

rlnorthcutt wrote: post #134

naj1n wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this will lead to OSS becoming a "finite game".

Can you expand on that a bit more? Do you think that more open source business models will lead to more rehashing of the same code/concepts over an over again? I'm also curious how you think this may apply to the rise in AI coding projects. In theory, it will become possible to create complex software by simply describing it well, and much of that code from the AI training is open source.

First, it's gorgeous to be the first open-source alternative to xxx in different industry segments. In comparison, it's just commercial competition that more and more OSS alternatives to the same project. ⁣ ⁣

Then, it's difficult for me to have a good discussion with u on the AI coding project. There are so many problems, such as licenses, trademarks, and secrets of contribution behind AI coding. ⁣ ⁣

Thk u.

Re: Show HN: Open-source alternative to Retool

#138

Post by naj1n » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 2:50 AM UTC

rlnorthcutt wrote: post #134

naj1n wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this will lead to OSS becoming a "finite game".

Can you expand on that a bit more? Do you think that more open source business models will lead to more rehashing of the same code/concepts over an over again? I'm also curious how you think this may apply to the rise in AI coding projects. In theory, it will become possible to create complex software by simply describing it well, and much of that code from the AI training is open source.

Incredibly, ChatGPT from @OpenAI provides the sample Wasmer's Rust code. AI coding projects are crazy. Maybe ur right.