Write some software, give it away for free • Hacker News Board

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#281

Post by imhoguy » Thu, May 07, 2026, 5:51 PM UTC

i_think_so wrote: post #204

imhoguy wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An one thing which isn't free is AI. Try to maintain moderately complex app with AI and not spend $ on tokens or GPUs.

We really really need a high quality coding assistant that runs in 4GB of VRAM. It doesn't have to be the best, and it doesn't need to be able to handle more than say 2 languages at a time, like C and whatever. That would open up the field to a whole new demographic of potential coders, which is what the industry desperately needs right now. ...because right now no one is hiring _anybody_ who isn't a super duper seni…

You can't encode high quality coding practices and conversation skills in 4GB model. Information compression is too lossy.

No one is hiring because IT hit peak of usefulness. I delete more apps from my phone than install every month. I don't need more services. My rusty car is enough, no need for more touch interfaces.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#282

Post by tardedmeme » Thu, May 07, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #269

echelon wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. It's that simple. Companies shouldn't get your labor for free. Especially the big ones. Trillion dollar companies don't deserve hand outs. We should have figured this out twenty years ago.

When I make open source software, it's a gift to the commons for the enrichment of all mankind. It doesn't cost me, or humanity, one bit if a big tech company benefits from it. The idea that companies shouldn't be able to benefit from contributions to the commons is not really justifiable.

Humanity benefits more if poor people can use it for free and big companies have to pay for it, than if both can use it for free. Companies having to pay for stuff is the only reason they don't have 100% of the money, which would be bad.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#283

Post by phendrenad2 » Thu, May 07, 2026, 8:00 PM UTC

Write some software, give it away ANONYMOUSLY.

There, fixed the biggest complaints people have with open-source.

Don't post an email address, don't have a contact form. Do you really think people are going to identify a bug you weren't already aware of? Is that possibility really worth the angry attacks from entitled worms and millipedes? I don't think so.

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#284

Post by OldSchool » Thu, May 07, 2026, 8:06 PM UTC

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #271

borplk wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately nerds are easy to trick. Good luck convincing any other discipline to do free labour for optional donations, vibes, and "the community".

People in other professions do that all the time. Doctors go to serve in poor places so that they can have medical care, carpenters volunteer to help make furniture and structures for charity projects, and so on. It simply is not the case that programmers are the only professionals who will donate labor for the sake of the communal good.

However... those professions are encouraged to donate basic human needs/rights to those without resources. Yes, even tradespeople donate their time to those in need sometimes, but normally only to those in need.

Contrarily, open source can be easily observed to take resources in the form of created capital (ip) for less than full value or no value from the arguably more needy (individuals) and gives them to the not-needy-at-all (business).

Re: Write some software, give it away for free

#285

Post by dlenski » Thu, May 07, 2026, 9:46 PM UTC

seba_dos1 wrote: post #166

nirui wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I didn't like being a professional software developer for a huge tech company This feeling is probably shared by many lefties people. They love to work, they just don't like to be restricted/manipulated into working under a highly specified and standardized environment, especially when every bit of their performance is measured for competition. But I have grown to understand the environment of the "big tech" co…

> If you don't like to work for big companies, maybe try start one of your own. There's a huge landscape of things in between these two options.

Agreed. There are a lot of companies with a few to a few thousand employees which are not aiming for the kind of rapid growth that attracts VCs, but at the same time doing interesting and challenging and productive work.