Comment by Philpax

Comment by Philpax a day ago

11 replies

I'll be honest; I'm pretty sure this "mistake" will be completely forgotten by the next month. Their enforcing that their subscription only works with their product should not really come as a surprise to anyone, and the alt-agent users are a small enough minority that they'll get over it.

jrsj a day ago

I’m starting to think you’re right but only because software engineers don’t seem to actually value or care about open source anymore. Apparently we have collectively forgotten how bad it can be to let your tools own you instead of the other way around.

Maybe another symptom of Silicon Valley hustle culture — nobody cares about the long term consequences if you can make a quick buck.

  • Philpax a day ago

    There's nothing stopping you from using OpenCode with any other provider, including Anthropic: you just can't get the subsidised pricing while doing so. This is irritating, yes - it certainly disincentivises me from trying out OpenCode - but it's also, like, not unexpected?

    In any case, the long-term solution for true openness is to be able to run open-weight models locally or through third-party inference providers.

    • jrsj a day ago

      Yes but why are they subsidizing the pricing and requiring to use their closed source client to benefit from it? It’s the same reason the witch in the story of Hansel and Gretel was giving out free candy.

      • motoxpro 21 hours ago

        Is this a serious question? Why would they subsidize people when there is no benifet to them? Subsidization means they are LOSING money when people use it. If the customers that are using 3rd party clients are unwilling to pay a price that is profitable for them, that is a very positive, not negative, thing for Anthropic to lose them.

        The reason to subsidize is the exact reason you are worried about. Lock in, network effects, economies of scale, etc.

      • renewiltord 21 hours ago

        Yes, why is there a discount when I buy a bundle? This is clearly sign of nefarious behaviour.

  • yoyohello13 16 hours ago

    > software engineers don’t seem to actually value or care about open source anymore.

    Hate to break it to you, but the vast majority never did. See any thread about Linux on HN. Maybe the Open Source wave was before my time, but ever since I came into the industry around 2015 "caring about open source" has been the minority view. It's Windows/Mac/Photo Shop/etc all the way up and down.

  • theshrike79 3 hours ago

    Quality, UX, DX first, second openness.

    If all is equal, I pick the open option. In this case it's not equal, Claude Code + Opus 4.5 is better than Opencode + Opus 4.5.

  • conartist6 a day ago

    We're going to learn that lesson again in a big hurry at this point.

  • bpt3 a day ago

    > Apparently we have collectively forgotten how bad it can be to let your tools own you instead of the other way around.

    We've collectively forgotten because a large enough number of professional developers have never experienced anything other than a thriving open source ecosystem.

    As with everything else (finance and politics come to mind in particular), humans will have to learn the same lessons the hard way over and over. Unfortunately, I think we're at the beginning of that lesson and hope the experience doesn't negatively impact me too much.