5 ms·

Open source is looking great right now

verdverm 4mo ago
seriously, ordered more hardware this week, as it gets more dystopian every week wondering when more people will raise their voice and get engaged
- King-Aaron 4mo ago
  History shows that people generally start speaking out about things after it's too late to do so.
  - thewebguyd 3mo ago
    More specifically, the masses here are well satisfied with proverbial bread and circuses. We won't see mass action until enough people have literally nothing left to lose. For now, folks have plenty to risk and lose by taking action. There is not nearly enough homelessness or starvation yet for people to rise up. The masses are surprisingly tolerant of authoritarian oppression so long as food can keep being put on the table.
    - verdverm 3mo ago
      On a bright note, there are signs of bipartisan anger at government and corruption. This needs to be channeled effectively by the people instead of the powerful or politicians. The key is to connect the problems to the corruption, many already see it this way. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/americans-are-furious-about-corruption https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/amer... the many can defeat the money
hdgvhicv 4mo ago
It’s looking very fragile from a legal point of view. Ownership of compute and software freedom will be next k the chopping block after control of networks that’s occurring at the moment.
- helloplanets 4mo ago
  Less so in EU than in US.
  - necovek 4mo ago
    I would not be so confident, though I certainly hope!
  - hdgvhicv 3mo ago
    America https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/lawmakers-want-ban-vpns-and-they-have-no-idea-what-theyre-doing https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/lawmakers-want-ban-vpn... Europe https://cybernews.com/privacy/age-gates-vpn-ban-europe-internet-freedom/ https://cybernews.com/privacy/age-gates-vpn-ban-europe-inter...
small_model 4mo ago
It's the year of the open source AI model is the new 'It's the year of the Linux Desktop'. It's not and never will be for 90% of people
- ed_balls 4mo ago
  Well if us gov would block people from using windows or macos, then it may well be.
- Argonaut998 4mo ago
  That’s not true at all. While not as good as proprietary models they are still very good and can do A LOT, certainly more than their cost would make it seem. It’s only a matter of time before companies start to acknowledge the huge cost of tokens and look for a cheaper alternative with basic cost-benefit analysis. My F500 company is getting local infrastructure going to host open models and I’m sure many will just switch to bedrock + the best open models. It’s foolish for companies to let three companies dictate the price of tokens, I just don’t think they are aware of this now by and large.
- matheusmoreira 4mo ago
  GLM 5.2 is competitive with Opus 4.6.
  - deleted 4mo ago
    [deleted]
  - spacebacon 4mo ago
    [dead]
  - irthomasthomas 4mo ago
    I thought it was better than that? It matches 4.8 in many evals and even beat Fable in Design Arena by a very healthy margin.
bilekas 4mo ago
It's looking good until you start to see the US gov forcing cloudflare to block hugging face and others.
- 15155 4mo ago
  Why do they need to "force Cloudflare" to do anything? Why wouldn't they just tell Hugging Face that they need to abide export restrictions directly - they're an American company? Doesn't sound dystopian enough without a second compelled entity?
  - bilekas 4mo ago
    Because the models don't necessarily need to be hosted on hugging face. You can create a Model Card repository containing your README and from there you include instructions or a custom script in your repository that allows authenticated users to download the model. > Doesn't sound dystopian enough without a second compelled entity? This is the second snarky question you've made today, the other in relation to the export limit. > Is this just upsetting because it's a product you want to enjoy? Both are assumptions you are making and don't provide much in the way of constructive conversation, if I'm wrong about something it's alright to just point it out.
    - 15155 4mo ago
      > don't necessarily need to be hosted on hugging face. Export restrictions don't split generally hairs on technicalities like "hosting" - the "but magnet links aren't actually torrents!" defense doesn't fly when $1M fines and federal felonies are at stake. All distribution or "causing" distribution to restricted entities is prohibited. > This is the second snarky question you've made today It's not snark: why would Cloudflare somehow be legally or technically relevant in the context of two American companies distributing export-restricted materials? HN seems to love the "Cloudflare controls the internet!" "NSA bad!" trope.
      - bilekas 4mo ago
avaer 4mo ago
This isn't going to save you unless you're ok being a criminal. There is nothing stopping the government from making open source versions of these models equally controlled. And given how willy-nilly they are operating I see no reason they won't clamp down on open source. All it takes is someone with connections/political contributions wakes up one day and realizes that open source is a threat to their power or bottom line and it will be declared an imminent threat with no oversight or debate.
- amanaplanacanal 4mo ago
  They can try. Will the courts go along?
  - HaZeust 4mo ago
    They're trying to build case law for this with VPNs. They'll likely succeeed.
  - braebo 4mo ago
    The Supreme Court is captured by the Epstein class, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.

seriously, ordered more hardware this week, as it gets more dystopian every week wondering when more people will raise their voice and get engaged

King-Aaron 4mo ago
History shows that people generally start speaking out about things after it's too late to do so.
- thewebguyd 3mo ago
  More specifically, the masses here are well satisfied with proverbial bread and circuses. We won't see mass action until enough people have literally nothing left to lose. For now, folks have plenty to risk and lose by taking action. There is not nearly enough homelessness or starvation yet for people to rise up. The masses are surprisingly tolerant of authoritarian oppression so long as food can keep being put on the table.
  - verdverm 3mo ago
    On a bright note, there are signs of bipartisan anger at government and corruption. This needs to be channeled effectively by the people instead of the powerful or politicians. The key is to connect the problems to the corruption, many already see it this way. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/americans-are-furious-about-corruption https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/amer... the many can defeat the money

hdgvhicv 4mo ago

It’s looking very fragile from a legal point of view. Ownership of compute and software freedom will be next k the chopping block after control of networks that’s occurring at the moment.

helloplanets 4mo ago
Less so in EU than in US.
- necovek 4mo ago
  I would not be so confident, though I certainly hope!
- hdgvhicv 3mo ago
  America https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/lawmakers-want-ban-vpns-and-they-have-no-idea-what-theyre-doing https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/lawmakers-want-ban-vpn... Europe https://cybernews.com/privacy/age-gates-vpn-ban-europe-internet-freedom/ https://cybernews.com/privacy/age-gates-vpn-ban-europe-inter...

small_model 4mo ago

It's the year of the open source AI model is the new 'It's the year of the Linux Desktop'. It's not and never will be for 90% of people

ed_balls 4mo ago
Well if us gov would block people from using windows or macos, then it may well be.
Argonaut998 4mo ago
That’s not true at all. While not as good as proprietary models they are still very good and can do A LOT, certainly more than their cost would make it seem. It’s only a matter of time before companies start to acknowledge the huge cost of tokens and look for a cheaper alternative with basic cost-benefit analysis. My F500 company is getting local infrastructure going to host open models and I’m sure many will just switch to bedrock + the best open models. It’s foolish for companies to let three companies dictate the price of tokens, I just don’t think they are aware of this now by and large.
matheusmoreira 4mo ago
GLM 5.2 is competitive with Opus 4.6.
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
- spacebacon 4mo ago
  [dead]
- irthomasthomas 4mo ago
  I thought it was better than that? It matches 4.8 in many evals and even beat Fable in Design Arena by a very healthy margin.

bilekas 4mo ago

It's looking good until you start to see the US gov forcing cloudflare to block hugging face and others.

15155 4mo ago
Why do they need to "force Cloudflare" to do anything? Why wouldn't they just tell Hugging Face that they need to abide export restrictions directly - they're an American company? Doesn't sound dystopian enough without a second compelled entity?
- bilekas 4mo ago
  Because the models don't necessarily need to be hosted on hugging face. You can create a Model Card repository containing your README and from there you include instructions or a custom script in your repository that allows authenticated users to download the model. > Doesn't sound dystopian enough without a second compelled entity? This is the second snarky question you've made today, the other in relation to the export limit. > Is this just upsetting because it's a product you want to enjoy? Both are assumptions you are making and don't provide much in the way of constructive conversation, if I'm wrong about something it's alright to just point it out.
  - 15155 4mo ago
    > don't necessarily need to be hosted on hugging face. Export restrictions don't split generally hairs on technicalities like "hosting" - the "but magnet links aren't actually torrents!" defense doesn't fly when $1M fines and federal felonies are at stake. All distribution or "causing" distribution to restricted entities is prohibited. > This is the second snarky question you've made today It's not snark: why would Cloudflare somehow be legally or technically relevant in the context of two American companies distributing export-restricted materials? HN seems to love the "Cloudflare controls the internet!" "NSA bad!" trope.
    - bilekas 4mo ago

avaer 4mo ago

This isn't going to save you unless you're ok being a criminal. There is nothing stopping the government from making open source versions of these models equally controlled. And given how willy-nilly they are operating I see no reason they won't clamp down on open source. All it takes is someone with connections/political contributions wakes up one day and realizes that open source is a threat to their power or bottom line and it will be declared an imminent threat with no oversight or debate.

amanaplanacanal 4mo ago
They can try. Will the courts go along?
- HaZeust 4mo ago
  They're trying to build case law for this with VPNs. They'll likely succeeed.
- braebo 4mo ago
  The Supreme Court is captured by the Epstein class, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.