Coding agents could make free software matter again

Post by m4rtink » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 3:49 PM UTC

gf000 wrote: post #200

sigbottle wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The LLM can a priori test on all possible software and hardware environments, test all possible edge cases for deployment, get feedback from millions of eyes on the project explicitly or implicitly via bug reports and usage, find good general case use features given the massive amounts of data gathered through the community of where the project needs to go next, etc? Even in a world with pure LLM coding, it's more li…

Yeah, the funny thing that Linux being open-source is absolutely in line with capitalism. Just look at the list of maintainers - they are almost all paid employees of gigacorps. It is just an optimization that makes sense -- writing an OS that is compatible with all sorts of hardware is hard, let alone one that is performant, checked for vulnerabilities, etc. Why would each gigacorp waste a bunch of money on developi…

Post by Akronymus » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 3:59 PM UTC

advael wrote: post #292

Akronymus wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But wouldn't that be like some company using gpl licensed code to host a code generator for something? At least in a legal interpretation. Or is that different?

I mean, is the case you're making that you can run a SaaS business on GPL-derived code without fulfilling GPL obligations because you're not distributing a binary?

Post by Akronymus » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #294

Akronymus wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But wouldn't that be like some company using gpl licensed code to host a code generator for something? At least in a legal interpretation. Or is that different?

And why would that be different or allowed? Sure, you get all the code you want, GPL licensed. Everybody is trying to have their cake and eat it, too, by license laundering. Heck, money laundering means you at least lose some of the money.

Post by doctorwho42 » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

andoando wrote: post #43

floathub wrote: post #3

Free software has never mattered more. All the infrastructure that runs the whole AI-over-the-internet juggernaut is essentially all open source. Heck, even Claude Code would be far less useful without grep, diff, git, head, etc., etc., etc. And one can easily see a day where something like a local sort Claude Code talking to Open Weight and Open Source models is the core dev tool.

Why isnt LLM training itself open sourced? With all the compute in the world, something like Folding@home here would be killer

Post by mghackerlady » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

mike_hearn wrote: post #288

apatheticonion wrote: post #21

Having over a decade of open source software I've written freely available online, I actually really appreciate the value that AI && LLMs have provided me. The thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth is the fact that my works were likely included in the training data and, if it doesn't violate my licenses (GNU 2/3), it certainly feels against the spirit of what I intended when distributing my works. I was made redu…

FWIW, a lot of open source caused other people to lose their jobs too, all pre AI. So what goes around comes around. The Free Software movement was from day one built on cloning proprietary programs - UNIX was a commercial OS that AT&T sold, the early Linux desktop environments all looked exactly like a mashup of Windows 95 and commercial DEs, etc. Every commercial UNIX got wiped out except Apple, do you think that d…