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

All my new code will be closed-source from now on

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 118 posts

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#61

Post by conartist6 »

reactordev wrote: post #42
conartist6 wrote: post #21

I'm writing OSS code with the intent to replace git. I know my position is very different, but to me openness is not a critical vulnerability when facing big companies but my secret weapon. For me the best outcome is taking over all the market currently held by git and GitHub, and the worst outcome would be that Microsoft somehow pulls an embrace-extend-extinguish on us. But my goal, and I think I've been successful…

Curious your thoughts on how we got here, with git being the dominant VCS. You do know how git rose to fame? Who wrote it? Why it was adopted? It came from a need. So what needs do we have that you solve? I agree GitHub is evil. There’s GitLab, gitea, codeberg… self hosting, ssh like its old school git, you have other options.

Line and column.

There's 50 years of tech debt in lines and columns which can be traced back through git to patch and then to TTY and to actual typewriters on which you had to feed the paper a line and return the carriage. Line and column are how you break down (and address into) code when code is written on a simulation of a stack of punchcards

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#62

Post by ZoneZealot »

throwaway150 wrote: post #37

I don't mean to trivialize the OP's experience. This is definitely a very important matter and serious issue in the industry. So forgive me for raising a much smaller, side point. > I've contributed millions of lines of carefully written OSS code over the past decade I have never tracked my own output, but I would be surprised if I have written even a single million lines of code, let alone several. Out of curiosity,…

It's almost like the kind of extra filler that an LLM adds because it doesn't understand the meaning behind the words...

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#63

Post by [deleted] »

csomar wrote: post #45
wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #40

Tailwind is down because it solved the same problem that AI does - CSS is super complex, write only code and largely not memorable. AI is perfect for writing CSS because you can tell it your intent and it does it. There just is not the need for frameworks/libs to make it less complex.

I have just written an article about this (submitted by someone else: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46565409 ) What you are saying is wrong and countered with hard data: LLMs produce and increase the use of tailwind not decrease it. Confirmed by the founder himself.

[deleted]

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#64

Post by BoredPositron »

csomar wrote: post #45
wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #40

Tailwind is down because it solved the same problem that AI does - CSS is super complex, write only code and largely not memorable. AI is perfect for writing CSS because you can tell it your intent and it does it. There just is not the need for frameworks/libs to make it less complex.

I have just written an article about this (submitted by someone else: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46565409 ) What you are saying is wrong and countered with hard data: LLMs produce and increase the use of tailwind not decrease it. Confirmed by the founder himself.

And you think LLMs can't produce tailwind components? Because that's the problem they are facing, not tailwind usage itself.

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#65

Post by ahmetomer »

There's no complexity in understanding an OSS author wanting to make money out of their hard work. People forget that OSS is about providing something useful to the world for free because they choose to do so. And anyone who doesn't want to follow this, or chooses to transition to a new model, should be respected with their decision. Accusing them of "greed" is to be out of touch and out of taste. This is as much a personal matter as it is about the current and future state of OSS in general.

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#66

Post by jltsiren »

tvbusy wrote: post #48
mellosouls wrote: post #4

The entire argument is framed through an anti-open-source view which sees participation as entirely motivated by money. It's an unfortunate presentation that makes it more difficult to sympathise with - and ultimately it may not matter; either somebody else will fill the gap or the LLMs he resents will help coders create their products without the libraries he seems to think are valueless without a set financial cost…

You're thinking of open source projects that only need a few hours of work per week. Anything more than a few hours a week either requires someone to give up their full time job to work on it (switch to part time jobs/consultation is an option), or having multiple contributors which still require significant effort to coordinate at the end of the day. Let's say Tailwind CSS gives up and stops the project, do you thin…

In my experience, people are willing to contribute up to 10 hours/week to individual volunteer projects they care about. That may increase to up to 20 hours/week for a year or two when they assume a key role.

A full-time job takes a third of your waking hours. Then you probably need to spend another third on various maintenance activities, leaving you with the equivalent of a full-time job to spend as you see fit.

Of course, when you have a volunteer-run project, your priorities will be different from projects that people do for a living. You will probably focus on what the contributors find interesting or important, rather than what someone else might find useful or valuable.

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#67

Post by capitol_ »

throwaway150 wrote: post #37

I don't mean to trivialize the OP's experience. This is definitely a very important matter and serious issue in the industry. So forgive me for raising a much smaller, side point. > I've contributed millions of lines of carefully written OSS code over the past decade I have never tracked my own output, but I would be surprised if I have written even a single million lines of code, let alone several. Out of curiosity,…

I have worked in the industry for a little over 20 years, i wouldn't be surprised if I have written between one to two million loc.

I would be surprised if it's significantly above that.

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#68

Post by bathtub365 »

nothercastle wrote: post #34
moltar wrote: post #3

This is a foreign position to me. I open sourced my code not to make money but because I saw that others can benefit from it. I never made money from open source. If I did my mental model would be that these are charitable donations, not an income stream I can rely on.

The problem is that’s ai is monetizing your code And not giving you anything

AI is also likely not following the terms of the license. I.e., for BSD it needs to include attribution.

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#69

Post by jowea »

ptero wrote: post #46
sallveburrpi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which sees participation as entirely motivated by money. I think it’s rather that people need to eat. He admits that some wealthy devs will continue to work for free (do charity basically) but for those who want to make a living from OSS it will be harder and harder. But yea as you said ultimately it probably won’t matter that much.

> I think it’s rather that people need to eat. They do and always did. But open source was originally not about that, but about building something cool and letting others build on that. And, crucially, about GPL preventing large companies from extinguishing your work "because copyright". I remember Bill Gates calling GPL a spreading virus that tech world has to fight. Sometime along this path monetizing open source b…

I think free software was more about that about that. Open source always was about getting financially motivated companies onboard.

Re: All my new code will be closed-source from now on

#70

Post by sys_64738 »

conartist6 wrote: post #21

I'm writing OSS code with the intent to replace git. I know my position is very different, but to me openness is not a critical vulnerability when facing big companies but my secret weapon. For me the best outcome is taking over all the market currently held by git and GitHub, and the worst outcome would be that Microsoft somehow pulls an embrace-extend-extinguish on us. But my goal, and I think I've been successful…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercurial
Post reply on HN