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Quiet · 8d

Devtools must be open source

11 items736 engagement235 comments Hacker NewsLobstersPress

Conversation activity · last 9 days peak 5/2h

Peak 5 items in one 2h at Aug 3, 10 AM; 11 items over 9 days Aug 3, 10 AM — 5 items · Hacker News 4, Press 1Aug 3, 12 PM — 2 items · Hacker News 2Aug 3, 2 PM — 2 items · Hacker News 2Aug 3, 4 PM — no itemsAug 3, 6 PM — no itemsAug 3, 8 PM — 1 item · Lobsters 1Aug 3, 10 PM — no itemsAug 4, 12 AM — no itemsAug 4, 2 AM — 1 item · Hacker News 1Aug 4, 4 AM — no itemsAug 4, 6 AM — no itemsAug 4, 8 AM — no itemsAug 4, 10 AM — no itemsAug 4, 12 PM — no itemsAug 4, 2 PM — no itemsAug 4, 4 PM — no itemsAug 4, 6 PM — no itemsAug 4, 8 PM — no itemsAug 4, 10 PM — no itemsAug 5, 12 AM — no itemsAug 5, 2 AM — no itemsAug 5, 4 AM — no itemsAug 5, 6 AM — no itemsAug 5, 8 AM — no itemsAug 5, 10 AM — no itemsAug 5, 12 PM — no itemsAug 5, 2 PM — no itemsAug 5, 4 PM — no itemsAug 5, 6 PM — no itemsAug 5, 8 PM — no itemsAug 5, 10 PM — no itemsAug 6, 12 AM — no itemsAug 6, 2 AM — no itemsAug 6, 4 AM — no itemsAug 6, 6 AM — no itemsAug 6, 8 AM — no itemsAug 6, 10 AM — no itemsAug 6, 12 PM — no itemsAug 6, 2 PM — no itemsAug 6, 4 PM — no itemsAug 6, 6 PM — no itemsAug 6, 8 PM — no itemsAug 6, 10 PM — no itemsAug 7, 12 AM — no itemsAug 7, 2 AM — no itemsAug 7, 4 AM — no itemsAug 7, 6 AM — no itemsAug 7, 8 AM — no itemsAug 7, 10 AM — no itemsAug 7, 12 PM — no itemsAug 7, 2 PM — no itemsAug 7, 4 PM — no itemsAug 7, 6 PM — no itemsAug 7, 8 PM — no itemsAug 7, 10 PM — no itemsAug 8, 12 AM — no itemsAug 8, 2 AM — no itemsAug 8, 4 AM — no itemsAug 8, 6 AM — no itemsAug 8, 8 AM — no itemsAug 8, 10 AM — no itemsAug 8, 12 PM — no itemsAug 8, 2 PM — no itemsAug 8, 4 PM — no itemsAug 8, 6 PM — no itemsAug 8, 8 PM — no itemsAug 8, 10 PM — no itemsAug 9, 12 AM — no itemsAug 9, 2 AM — no itemsAug 9, 4 AM — no itemsAug 9, 6 AM — no itemsAug 9, 8 AM — no itemsAug 9, 10 AM — no itemsAug 9, 12 PM — no itemsAug 9, 2 PM — no itemsAug 9, 4 PM — no itemsAug 9, 6 PM — no itemsAug 9, 8 PM — no itemsAug 9, 10 PM — no itemsAug 10, 12 AM — no itemsAug 10, 2 AM — no itemsAug 10, 4 AM — no itemsAug 10, 6 AM — no itemsAug 10, 8 AM — no itemsAug 10, 10 AM — no itemsAug 10, 12 PM — no itemsAug 10, 2 PM — no itemsAug 10, 4 PM — no itemsAug 10, 6 PM — no itemsAug 10, 8 PM — no itemsAug 10, 10 PM — no itemsAug 11, 12 AM — no itemsAug 11, 2 AM — no itemsAug 11, 4 AM — no itemsAug 11, 6 AM — no itemsAug 11, 8 AM — no itemsAug 11, 10 AM — no itemsAug 11, 12 PM — no itemsAug 11, 2 PM — no itemsAug 11, 4 PM — no itemsAug 11, 6 PM — no itemsAug 11, 8 PM — no itemsAug 11, 10 PM — no itemsAug 12, 12 AM — no itemsAug 12, 2 AM — no itemsAug 12, 4 AM — no items 5 items · 10 AM
Aug 4Aug 5Aug 6Aug 7Aug 8Aug 9Aug 10yesterdaynow · 6:03 AM

Clustered from 11 items across 3 sources. Not yet parsed — the coverage below is the raw record.

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Social posts 2

Voices from the web unedited

  • As a maintainer of a devtool which has strived to make itself easily forkable and modifiable, I can see the allure of this line of thinking but I think it's sadly too idealistic.Engineers using devtools are not so different to an average user in that they just want things to work. Maintaining a devtool is real work; e.g. suppose upstream adds some…

    lalitmagantiHacker News8d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • I've worked at a DevTools company and been the CEO of one too. Here's my thoughts:I agree that they need to be open source. But that makes it really hard to make a successful business. Sure, there are examples of success, but also many examples of successful open source tools never becoming successful companies.The most famous example is Sendmail…

    jedbergHacker News8d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • Some time ago, there was a comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48849015I deeply disagree with the light vs dark framing. I think the real tension between "hacker languages" and "blub languages" is the expectation to modify the language by it's user.And this is true for dev tools as well. Hackers prefer modifiable environments (such as…

    js8Hacker News8d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • One of the arguments for open source software for end-users has always been the freedom to examine and modify how that software works.The reality for most people - even expert programmers - has been that the freedom is more about being able to lean on other people to do that. Most people can't justify the time commitment needed to read and then…

    simonwHacker News8d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • I agree that devtools should be open source, but... I very much disagree with the premise that no tools should have config files, options, or plugin systems, and instead when you want to change something like your text editor's font size, you should have an LLM download the code, change the hard-coded value, and rebuild it.That's just so…

    kelnosHacker News8d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • > Set up a nightly cron job that executes the prompt: fetch upstream changes to the <software> and rebase all local changes on top of upstream. Check that the software works as intended and replace the current version.This sounds like hell. You have unreliable actor redoing the software every night, and every day there is a chance you wake up and…

    theamkHacker News8d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • "We need the source code." No, you want the source code. You want software someone else put their time, effort, and judgement into to be available for you to do whatever you'd like with it without any recompense. The sense of entitlement here is exhausting.There are plenty of good reasons to choose an an open source tools and sure, the ability to…

    quintu5Hacker News8d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • I used to be much more of an open source fundamentalist than I am now. For me, it's more about trust than source availability. There are closed source projects that I have high trust in, and there are open source projects that I don't trust at all. A project being open source can increase trust, but not necessarily so.Regarding personalization, I…

    fasterikHacker News8d agoview on Hacker News ↗