Devtools must be open source (exe.dev)
Named practitioner synthesis
#1290
- Canonical URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/3/devtools-must-be-open-source-exedev/#atom-everything
- Topic
- unassigned (set during synthesis)
- First seen
- 2026-08-04 07:15:59
- Last seen
- 2026-08-04 07:15:59
Source raw items (1)
- Blog / Newsletter2026-08-04 07:15:54Devtools must be open source (exe.dev)
<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156111#49156719">My comment</a> on <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156111">Devtools must be open source (exe.dev)</a> — Hacker News.</p><p>One of the arguments for open source software for end-users has always been the freedom to examine and modify how that software works.</p> <p>The reality for most people - even expert programmers - has been that the freedom is more about being able to lean on <em>other people</em> to do that. Most people can't justify the time commitment needed to read and then modify the code for tools they use very often.</p> <p>I think LLMs have changed that equation in a way that makes the original dream much more feasible.</p> <p>Several times a day I'll prompt regular Claude chat to "Clone x/y from GitHub and tell me how Z works".</p> <p>Getting software to compile in order to start hacking on it used to be enough friction that I often wouldn't bother. Now I treat that as a zero time inve