Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cal.com is going closed source

cal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 337 posts

Re: Cal.com is going closed source

#221

Post by wartywhoa23 »

d3Xt3r wrote: post #212
r2vcap wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As LLMs improve and adoption grows, maintaining a FOSS project is becoming more complex and more expensive in terms of time and manpower. That part is easy to understand. It is also become a trend that LLM-assisted users are generating more low-quality issues, dubious security reports, and noisy PRs, to the point where keeping the whole stack open source no longer feels worth it. Even if the real reason is monetizati…

Just use AI to fight AI, that's the only sensible way we can keep up. So if you're low-quality PRs, reports etc, have LLMs filter them out. Like how once upon a time we used to drown in email spam but it's now mostly a non-issue thanks to intelligent spam filters, the same needs to happen for opensource projects. Use AI to fight AI.

In other words, have more money to pay than your enemy.

This game will end horribly.

Re: Cal.com is going closed source

#223

Post by rswail »

throwuxiytayq wrote: post #206
MerrimanInd wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if we could find a way to donate unused tokens or even local compute resources to open-source projects we support. Especially for security auditing where it could probably be somewhat more asynchronous and disconnected than the open-source developers' personal tool choices.

“Unused tokens” are a weird, fragile concept that I wouldn’t want to build upon. You can just donate money, you know. That’s what money’s for - it’s the universal exchange thingy.

Maybe if we reframed money as a "fungible token" people would start understanding its use again?

Re: Cal.com is going closed source

#224

Post by wartywhoa23 »

a-fadil wrote: post #165

Open source means living under constant scrutiny. AI just made that scrutiny cheaper and faster. I feel this every day maintaining an open source project. The temptation to close the source is real but let’s not forget that open source is what raised the bar for software quality in the first place.

Open source is what made this AI shitshow possible in the first place.

Re: Cal.com is going closed source

#226

Post by lrvick »

opem wrote: post #185
OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An app like Cal.com can be vibe coded in a few evenings with a Chrome MCP server pointed to their website to figure out all the nooks and crannys. The moat of Cal.com is not the code, it's the users who don't want to migrate. The real answer is they are likely having a hard time converting people to paid plans

For real, one of the reasons I use cal.com is because it's open source. Time to migrate.

Same. I expect in a misguided effort to save customers, they are going to lose a lot more. My two companies will be canceling over this.

Re: Cal.com is going closed source

#227

Post by lrvick »

jeroenhd wrote: post #207
MerrimanInd wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if we could find a way to donate unused tokens or even local compute resources to open-source projects we support. Especially for security auditing where it could probably be somewhat more asynchronous and disconnected than the open-source developers' personal tool choices.

"unused tokens" are the force driving token cost down. If everyone used all of the tokens they thought they were paying for, prices would explode. People with subscriptions that don't get out everything they can are subsidizing the system. There are ways to use LLM service providers that leave no tokens unused, by just billing per token. Unsurprisingly, this quickly becomes much more expensive than subscriptions.

And that is why the only winning move is owning a GPU.

Re: Cal.com is going closed source

#228

Post by wartywhoa23 »

wqtz wrote: post #112

In my advisory job founders always raise the question about open sourcing within the first hour of meeting me. They think that open sourcing product means transparency and developer trust which helps with early adoption. Every single founder I talked to brings up open source as a market penetration method to drive the initial adoption. I always say to just stop with the virtue signaling led sales technique. I despise…

> Open source is largely is nothing more then a branding concept for a company who is backed by investors.

And a religion that was invented by those who wanted to have all the world's code for free to train AI to code.

Re: Cal.com is going closed source

#229

Post by jmcgough »

notnullorvoid wrote: post #116
OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An app like Cal.com can be vibe coded in a few evenings with a Chrome MCP server pointed to their website to figure out all the nooks and crannys. The moat of Cal.com is not the code, it's the users who don't want to migrate. The real answer is they are likely having a hard time converting people to paid plans

> The moat of Cal.com is not the code, it's the users who don't want to migrate. That's a very weak moat unless you have something else like the friction of network dependence similar to a social network.

idk my mom still pays for her aol email account

Re: Cal.com is going closed source

#230

Post by rhubarbtree »

jmcgough wrote: post #229
notnullorvoid wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The moat of Cal.com is not the code, it's the users who don't want to migrate. That's a very weak moat unless you have something else like the friction of network dependence similar to a social network.

idk my mom still pays for her aol email account

Best business insight posted on HN. This. Your code is not your business.
Post reply on HN