Is this the same Replit who used legal threats to shut down an open source project made by an intern after they left[1]? I don't know how anyone can in good conscience support this company.
This Replit app seems to be well polished but I don't like that it needs an account. I opened the app and the first thing I saw was a sign up screen. I expected to see a programming language picker or text editor.
Alright, let's assume that's true for a moment, for sake of argument. One of the parties we're talking about has massively more power than the other, so I'm inclined to have higher standards for them than that of an intern.
Also, it's worth noting that the replit founder issued a pretty substantial mea culpa, and explicitly let Radon put the project back up.
It didn't seem like Radon made much of a concession at all, and it's not obvious to me that he was totally in the right.
That being said Radon did copy some Replit internal design choices for Riju, which was completely overlooked because he was able to play off as the weaker individual. I'm sure in most other situations open-sourcing the work of another company, even if its something you designed as an intern, is not ethical in any case. Furthermore, Radon did not make any concession to the incident. He went on with life, after the incident and continues to portray Replit as the villain with references to the blog post and the way it was written to incriminate, not objectively oversee the problem.
In short, he used pathos to play y'all.
Meanwhile Amjad apologized _extensively_ for his actions and allowed Riju to continue, despite using what was previously (not anymore) Replit's internal design.
In the world of OSS people love the underdog and hate "big tech", when there's more gray area that could be explored. Not that this is a defense of Amjad or an attack on Radon, but there's more to this story that needs to be seen in order to get the bigger picture :).
He was out of line, for sure, but he was not wrong, from what I read about the situation.
I’ve seen replit used in classroom settings both before and after that kerfuffle and it’s an extraordinary product., imho. If I were a teacher, I’d probably use it.