Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#21

Post by yokem55 » Wed, Nov 13, 2024, 11:25 PM UTC

Lionga wrote: post #17

consumer451 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? I believe every single line of everything is open source, aside from their server-side Discover feed algo. But in any case, the question is about the app, which is 100% MIT licensed open source code.

So everything besides the most important part? Real "open source" would for me even imply that all data is freely accessible but this stops way, way before and should not be called open in almost any sense. Just a VC PR play.

If you don't like the Discover feed, you are more then free to remove it from your account and add other feeds which are open source. Or don't add any feeds and just use the default "Following" feed which is just the posts of the folks who you follow and their re-posts, in flat reverse chronological order. That's it.

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#22

Post by bhhaskin » Wed, Nov 13, 2024, 11:31 PM UTC

palata wrote: post #16

I was never a big user of Twitter, but I joined a Mastodon server around 2020. I am still using it regularly, but I honestly find it pretty hard to get useful content: it feels like either it's random stuff I don't care about, or always the same people I follow and don't bring me much. At first I didn't want to try Bluesky (because of some of the founders, I suppose? I don't know, Mastodon seemed more organic), but I…

I have had the exact opposite experience with Mastodon. It's only stuff I care about and it's great!

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#23

Post by NikkiA » Wed, Nov 13, 2024, 11:58 PM UTC

palata wrote: post #16

I was never a big user of Twitter, but I joined a Mastodon server around 2020. I am still using it regularly, but I honestly find it pretty hard to get useful content: it feels like either it's random stuff I don't care about, or always the same people I follow and don't bring me much. At first I didn't want to try Bluesky (because of some of the founders, I suppose? I don't know, Mastodon seemed more organic), but I…

Following hashtags might open you up to new people talking about subjects you enjoy?

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#24

Post by kevincox » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 12:00 AM UTC

ferbivore wrote: post #15

consumer451 wrote: post #2

Bluesky is growing at around 10 accounts/second as of an hour ago. This has put their iOS app [0] in the top position under free apps, [1] in the USA and UK App Stores. The app is MIT licensed open source. Others and myself are wondering, is their #1 position in the iOS free app category a first for an open source app? (please note that this is all apps, not just social media) [0] https://github.com/bluesky-social/so…

The license isn't relevant. It's not really "an open source app", it's just an app that happens to be open source. Put it this way: if, say, Godot became the #1 most popular game engine, that would be something for the open source community at large to celebrate. With Bluesky, we have absolutely nothing to celebrate. If anything, this is terrible news; instead of Twitter losing users to a genuinely open platform, the…

I think its absolutely good for open source. At the very least it is something that future people can point to and show that an open source app doesn't block success.

Sure, it would be better if it was an open source app for an open source protocol, but it is still something.

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#25

Post by consumer451 » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 12:11 AM UTC

kevincox wrote: post #24

ferbivore wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The license isn't relevant. It's not really "an open source app", it's just an app that happens to be open source. Put it this way: if, say, Godot became the #1 most popular game engine, that would be something for the open source community at large to celebrate. With Bluesky, we have absolutely nothing to celebrate. If anything, this is terrible news; instead of Twitter losing users to a genuinely open platform, the…

I think its absolutely good for open source. At the very least it is something that future people can point to and show that an open source app doesn't block success. Sure, it would be better if it was an open source app for an open source protocol, but it is still something.

I believe even the protocol is fully open source.

https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#26

Post by whyrusleeping » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 1:23 AM UTC

kevincox wrote: post #24

ferbivore wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The license isn't relevant. It's not really "an open source app", it's just an app that happens to be open source. Put it this way: if, say, Godot became the #1 most popular game engine, that would be something for the open source community at large to celebrate. With Bluesky, we have absolutely nothing to celebrate. If anything, this is terrible news; instead of Twitter losing users to a genuinely open platform, the…

I think its absolutely good for open source. At the very least it is something that future people can point to and show that an open source app doesn't block success. Sure, it would be better if it was an open source app for an open source protocol, but it is still something.

It is indeed an open source app for an open source protocol.

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#27

Post by whyrusleeping » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 1:27 AM UTC

tartoran wrote: post #7

consumer451 wrote: post #2

Bluesky is growing at around 10 accounts/second as of an hour ago. This has put their iOS app [0] in the top position under free apps, [1] in the USA and UK App Stores. The app is MIT licensed open source. Others and myself are wondering, is their #1 position in the iOS free app category a first for an open source app? (please note that this is all apps, not just social media) [0] https://github.com/bluesky-social/so…

Is that a consistent metric of 10 accounts/second? If that's so it's a decent number. Is this a sudden influx of users? Are people fleeing away from Mr. Musk?

its been consistent around 10/s most of today, hit even higher bursts at points. Its been steadily increasing every day for the past week.

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#28

Post by haileyok » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 1:31 AM UTC

ferbivore wrote: post #15

consumer451 wrote: post #2

Bluesky is growing at around 10 accounts/second as of an hour ago. This has put their iOS app [0] in the top position under free apps, [1] in the USA and UK App Stores. The app is MIT licensed open source. Others and myself are wondering, is their #1 position in the iOS free app category a first for an open source app? (please note that this is all apps, not just social media) [0] https://github.com/bluesky-social/so…

The license isn't relevant. It's not really "an open source app", it's just an app that happens to be open source. Put it this way: if, say, Godot became the #1 most popular game engine, that would be something for the open source community at large to celebrate. With Bluesky, we have absolutely nothing to celebrate. If anything, this is terrible news; instead of Twitter losing users to a genuinely open platform, the…

The Bluesky app and the protocol it is built on are open source, MIT licensed.

The app is built using React/React Native as well as a variety of other open source tools. We maintain multiple React Native libraries as well that are open source.

The network is open, and anyone has access to the firehose. Third parties are free to run labelers that integrate with the application as well as build feeds which can be used by yourself or others inside the app. Anyone is free to use the open source SDKs to build their own third-party Bluesky apps or entirely unique applications using atprotocol.

To be frank, "it's just an app that happens to be open source" seems to be a pretty bad faith take on what Bluesky is.

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#29

Post by consumer451 » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 1:54 AM UTC

ferbivore wrote: post #15

consumer451 wrote: post #2

Bluesky is growing at around 10 accounts/second as of an hour ago. This has put their iOS app [0] in the top position under free apps, [1] in the USA and UK App Stores. The app is MIT licensed open source. Others and myself are wondering, is their #1 position in the iOS free app category a first for an open source app? (please note that this is all apps, not just social media) [0] https://github.com/bluesky-social/so…

The license isn't relevant. It's not really "an open source app", it's just an app that happens to be open source. Put it this way: if, say, Godot became the #1 most popular game engine, that would be something for the open source community at large to celebrate. With Bluesky, we have absolutely nothing to celebrate. If anything, this is terrible news; instead of Twitter losing users to a genuinely open platform, the…

I disagree with your definition of "open source app," but I do understand the desire to have a non-VC, non-single point of enshitifcation, social network. To quote Bsky dev Paul from 2hrs ago:

> Bluesky is building infrastructure you can fully self-host or mirror. Alice did a great job in this blogpost capturing what is doable now, and how to do it.

> This network should live long past Bluesky PBC. Let's work together to make this network more resilient!

https://bsky.app/profile/pfrazee.com/post/3laujhn5lfs2p

https://alice.bsky.sh/post/3laega7icmi2q

Re: Ask HN: Bluesky is #1 in the U.S. App Store. Is this a first for open source?

#30

Post by tmottabr » Thu, Nov 14, 2024, 1:59 AM UTC

Lionga wrote: post #17

consumer451 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? I believe every single line of everything is open source, aside from their server-side Discover feed algo. But in any case, the question is about the app, which is 100% MIT licensed open source code.

So everything besides the most important part? Real "open source" would for me even imply that all data is freely accessible but this stops way, way before and should not be called open in almost any sense. Just a VC PR play.

real open source does not imply any of that..

Real open source is any software with a license that obey the four freedoms..

1 - freedom to view the source 2 - freedom to use 3 - freedom to modify 4 - freedom to distribute your modified version

Bluesky use the MIT license that does comply with the freedoms above, so it is real open source..

Also, it use a open protocol as well.. so nothing is stopping you from deploying your own instance [1] and use their app to connect to it.. then you will have all your data freely accessible as you want..

[1] https://github.com/bluesky-social/pds