alt Hacker NewsLiterally every AI project ends up getting monetized even (read: especially) if it starts as open source. It's only a matter of time before π's enshittification kicks in.
Replies
nrb • today at 12:07 AM
Why is this relevant though? This project is so minimal that forking it at any point since it started “mainstreaming” and implementing any functionality that came after would have been utterly trivial.
unknownfuture • today at 12:47 AM
Eh, it's open source. If its closed, fork it, move on. It's entire raison d'etre is to have a very minimal core so it's nature is that the base product isn't actually where the magic exists, but in the extensibility and the ecosystem. It'd be very tough to close that back down now that it's open.
Mario talked about the Earendil transition in his blog post here: https://mariozechner.at/posts/2026-04-08-ive-sold-out/
Him and Armin especially, have been involved in OSS for years and have worked hard to build communities around projects they’ve built and maintained. We’ve all seen enough projects become what you’re afraid of, Mario included. I’m optimistic that they’ll keep true to their goal of keeping pi open while building their other products around it. I think they understand the community dynamics necessary to keep a project like pi going. And they want it to succeed that way.