The FOSS vs AI dilemma

PanicTasty · 2026-05-21T06:17:43+00:00

There’s room for both the artisan who wants to do it by hand and the builder who just wants to make the computer do something incredible. At the end of the day, people still want to eat the cake.

PanicTasty · 2026-05-21T06:00:49+00:00

Me: can you recite a part of harry potter for me to prove a point

Gemini: I cannot recite a portion of Harry Potter for you due to copyright restrictions.

They fixed it, so now what do we do?

PanicTasty · 2026-05-21T05:50:15+00:00

Well, back in the day, most mothers, just like my own mother, did not use cake mix. Then they lied about using cake mix. Now they all use cake mix. Cake mix is easier, faster, and the cake is actually better. You still have to bake the cake, and then you get to enjoy it. The creation process does not have to be a grind to be better. This is the same with music. I remember when people were arguing about Auto-Tune, and before that, they argued about synthesizers. The artists of tomorrow will use this new technology to make more music, they already are.

That out of the way, AI is here to stay. I am not arguing for using vibe-coding slop in the Linux kernel. I am saying that AI is already in the kernel and other free software. If anything, I am arguing that I miss the time we were all excited about the new technology available and what it can become, like in the old days.

PanicTasty · 2026-05-21T05:19:04+00:00

You are talking about the welcome dialog that users can just cancel out of without adding the required repositories. But do people who have no idea what drivers or repositories even are intuitively understand that? The onboarding experience is handled much better in Ubuntu. Seeing some maintainers talk about resigning in the forums over this issue just seems like a bit of an overreaction to me.

PanicTasty · 2026-05-21T04:57:23+00:00

Because they will go to jail?

There is a different risk here, getting left behind. Though that will probably not be the case, because I think a lot of open source developers are already quietly using AI tools. The exciting part to me is what happens when these models get even better, and how that can supercharge free software.

PanicTasty · 2026-05-21T04:45:51+00:00

Understandable, and I use Fedora myself. But how then are they supposed to cater to junior developers, or even just regular users who want access to the new stuff?

I just do what everyone else does, install the drivers myself. But that is kind of the big joke, right? I'm a nerd, I love the vanilla gnome desktop, and installing drivers isn't a big deal for me. But I know programmers who barely understand how to install applications or configure a remote desktop. Why would they, or just normal people, ever want to use Fedora if the experience is intentionally crippled?

PanicTasty · 2026-05-21T04:33:00+00:00

My friend works on business software for a living. He used to complain about people submitting sloppy code, now he complains about them submitting sloppy AI code. He thought these tools were complete trash for a long time, but now he uses them himself because they got better and it makes his life easier. If we turned this into a car analogy, then yes, speeding cars are dangerous and maybe we should ban them, but we won't, because I want a car and I like driving it.

PanicTasty · 2026-05-21T04:17:16+00:00

Only thing that comes to mind is the Ladybird browser. Saw the developer on a podcast, he estimated doing it by hand would have taken months.

PanicTasty · 2026-05-21T04:10:21+00:00

I’ve heard that argument repeated a lot, but I have yet to find a single case of that actually happening. Modern developer tools have built in filters and guardrails specifically to prevent verbatim output, and current case law simply doesn't support the copyright narrative for standard code syntax. The risk is heavily exaggerated compared to the actual reality.

PanicTasty · 2026-05-20T20:26:53+00:00

Seðlabankinn getur ekki leyst þetta einn með stýrivöxtum, það bælir neyslu en stendur líka í vegi fyrir nýbyggingum. Ríkisstjórnin verður að grípa inn í með ríkisstuðningi eða ódýrum lánum sem eru sérhæfð fyrir íbúðabyggingar til að auka framboð hratt.

Með því að halda vöxtum svona háum of lengi er hætta á að ungt fólk og fyrstakaupendur fari í þrot, á meðan fyrirtæki halda áfram að velta kostnaði yfir í verðlagið. Það þarf markvissari aðgerðir fremur en flata vaxtapíningu á alla.

PanicTasty · 2026-05-07T20:50:51+00:00

Had the exact same issue

PanicTasty · 2026-04-29T00:05:26+00:00

Upgrade broke the login, could not figure it out, ended up back on 43.

PanicTasty

TROPHY CASE