alt Hacker NewsI just did this at work, I was working with Postman testing an API and wanted it work in a slightly different way and be able to do some bulk testing, saving responses, all slightly different then how Postman worked. I clone just the features I wanted in about 15 minutes and now have my own API test tool that works exactly how I want. It is not something I would ever release or need to share, just a local tool for me to use. If your software doesn't provide a service, like sync, storage, availability, if it is just local, it'll be a tough market.
This also got me thinking about open source might be dying. For this tool, there is no reason for me to open source it, anyone can create the same thing in minutes. I didn't add anything, the only maybe interesting part would be to share the prompt, but then someone else can create their own prompt to have their tool do what they want.
Software world is really getting weird.
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>something I would ever release or need to share, just a local tool for me to use.
>This also got me thinking about open source might be dying.
Just because you can generate a wrapper app for a very specific use-case doesn't mean open source is dead or dying. As if open source was all just about people sharing their crappy specific use-case apps.
And software isn't getting weird. A part of the software development life cycle is being automated.
> Software world is really getting weird.
Automation of easy templated tasks will cause a huge disruption. Production of software used to be a skilled job, but now is automated to a large degree. This has huge impacts to the profession as a whole. Already, enrollment to the UC CS program is declining.
You mean postman the curl frontend with a lot of bloat and an account + price tag? Not really the example of a very valuable app to begin with.
Open source should acquire greater, multiplied value once the new scaffolding is put into place. The open source community is still using the past approach, which is going to be largely washed away.
More people with more agents freely contributing more to even more concentrated and scaled-up projects.
Those agents will get more potent. The projects can get more ambitious.
One user with N Claude usage. 100 users with 100x the Claude usage. Who can build the superior product? If you put the right structure on it, the 100x wins by a drastic margin. Those 100x Claudes benefit in combination courtesy of the open source effect, their potential additive value is greatly enhanced.
The 1x outcome will end up being relegated to triviality (the one page homepage as website). The bar is about to be raised really, really, really high in software if you want to be relevant. This is merely a very short transition period.
I agree that software without a service model faces a tough market. Sometimes, users just want software that works indefinitely on their phones without subscriptions or ads. That’s why many people are big fans of one-time purchase apps. I’m one of them; I prefer local apps because I know the software won't deteriorate over time.