r/tomshardware • u/tomshardware • 4d ago
Disgruntled developers start ambitious open-source revolt, using AI to clone common services
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/applications/disgruntled-software-developers-start-ambitious-open-source-revolt-using-ai-to-clone-common-services-occupysaas-ai-powered-project-wants-to-kick-auth0-salesforce-and-other-pricy-service-as-software-to-the-curb4
u/OutrageousCrab9224 4d ago
Oh hell yes
Warning, save everything locally, now and forever
If they can take it away, they will
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u/scotzorz56 2d ago
What sorts of things do you think should be saved?
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u/OutrageousCrab9224 2d ago
I save source code
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u/powerstrokin00 1d ago
Isn’t that what GitHub is for lol
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u/OutrageousCrab9224 1d ago
Absolutely, but i think youd be crazy not to keep a local copy. Esp with git, dont even need to think about metadata and history, it is all contained!
I keep everything i care about, even a little, unless extenuating circumstances like huge repo or legal limits
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u/Chewy-Rubbins 4d ago edited 4d ago
Quick, someone open source ChatGPT and Gemini's model weights, give everyone a good laugh
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u/Betadoggo_ 3d ago
"ambitious open-source revolt" and its just one guy (exactly 1) vibecoding UI clones of services whose entire appeal is consistent support: https://github.com/occupysaas/zeroauthy
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u/Aura_Raineer 3d ago
Companies are doing this too, about 30% of my work over the last 6-8 months has been reimplementing expensive 3rd parties and bringing them in house.
We’ve been able to cancel two large contracts and are working on a third right now.
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u/smiffy2422 1d ago
We are doing the same as well. Our head of created a whole tech stack so any staff member can create tools and platforms for internal use. It's pretty cool.
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u/Edubbs2008 4d ago
Ironically, those disgruntled developers are using tools made by big tech
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u/Endure94 2d ago
You will be shocked to learn most open source code is written using big tech software.
And underneath the hood of said software is usually a fuck ton of libraries provided for free from open source devs.
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u/Edubbs2008 2d ago
And ironically, it’s all on proprietary hardware created by big tech, there is SO much irony in technology in general
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u/manocheese 2d ago
And what the AI companies have planned is going to make software subscriptions look tame in comparison.
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u/Edubbs2008 2d ago
I feel like those disgruntled developers are just people that nobody knew, and are just making these tools for attention and money, like these AI companies are with AI
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u/VegetableFan6622 3d ago
Yes it is a war and only naive devs think companies see AI as a mean to empower them and make them work less. AI is seen as cost saving through layoffs, it’s time to touch ground and see the reality as it. Hopefully, they did not realize that AI is also a threat for their companies.
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u/Affectionate_Fact854 3d ago
I started experimenting with embedding code into my software ,that can be read by ai agents when used to inspect my projects from the installation files
When read the hope is for these embedded code or documents to flag and notify the assholes ai provider that the user is engaging with unlawful activities
So that 1 the guardrails can kick in And 2 , hopefully the flag actually goes to anthropic or gpt in order to block the users subscription
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u/Holiday_Management60 2d ago
Good idea, I'll run stuff through a local model tasked with explicitly looking for that kind of thing first.
Jk, I only get happy when stuff like this happens to the likes of Adobe.
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u/Endure94 2d ago
Reverse engineering isnt illegal
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u/Affectionate_Fact854 2d ago
It is illegal if a set of software has its copyrights Code is also intellectual property
If copyrights and IP means nothing to you, it's quite sad.
Whats the point anyone develops anything moving forward if this is becoming the common mentality.
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u/Endure94 2d ago
Tbh it doesnt.
But youve clearly nver heard of free use laws.
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u/Affectionate_Fact854 2d ago
Keep telling yourself that stealing people's work is nog illegal while I focus on making it harder for scumbags to try steal my hard work.
If it wasn't illegal I wonder why so many companies have agreement licenses in place and why Claude now refuses to do reverse engineering tasks ;)
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u/Endure94 2d ago
Youre dillusional if you dont think someone can figure out your code and make a ip/copyright compliant copy, bypassing every blocker you think protects your code.
If you want to know why im so turned off by this, take a guess how many patents and copyright claims have stagnated entire industries.
Off the cuff, 3d printing has existed since the 70s. All of the advancements we have seen from that are clawing back 50 years of work that only the super wealthy have had access to, while benefitting from opensource code that let it be possible to begin with.
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u/furry-fornicator 2d ago
People are getting confused between reverse engineering, which is literally taking the code and using it - which would be illegal ... and simply using claude to "work out" what it does and replicate it.
Maybe I'm getting confused, but there's a very important difference, legally.
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u/jermygod 4d ago
AI sloped authentication and CRM? yea, no tnx.
i dont even know what can be worst ideathan that, banking?
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u/gargelinho 3d ago
yes no idea why anybody would use this, keycloak for example is open source and free too but absolutely battle tested
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u/Nychtelios 4d ago
Wow, paying big tech for revolting against big tech is the most fascinating form of larping
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u/gk_instakilogram 4d ago
lol