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Comment by loveparade | Hacker News Reader

I really enjoyed herdr at first but ever since they got VC funding I am avoiding it. Enshittification and cloud features due to vc/monetization pressure incoming.

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Since you used herdr before it got funding, were you going to donate or pay for it without VC funding?

Are you asking the same question to emacs users?

Yes. So you donated to Emacs as a long time user?

No, and i don't feel bad about it.

Good. So as you as a long time Emacs user, no donations to support them at all.

Thank you for proving my point.

Don't confuse Open Source with an enshittification backdoor with Free Software.

Nope. I think you are confused since Herdr was free software and licensed under AGPL 3.0 [0] before it was VC funded.

One (emacs) gets millions in donations via the FSF and the other get little to no money or donations for being "free software" from the start despite both of them being "free software".

[0] https://github.com/herdrdev/herdr/blob/a57b97285c3308fbdcc16...

I guess there is some nuance here. Would I pay for a very good agent multiplexer that makes me a lot more productive? Sure, same reason I pay for other apps or services.

But for Herdr specifically? Probably not. There are tons of similar free alternatives and even vibe coding your own is very easy with all the open source code of both herdr and all the alternatives available.

> Would I pay for a very good agent multiplexer that makes me a lot more productive?

That is not the question I am asking.

> But for Herdr specifically? Probably not.

So no then.

That is why they went for VC money since the author knew that donations weren't enough to maintain it in the open.

> There are tons of similar free alternatives and even vibe coding your own is very easy with all the open source code of both herdr and all the alternatives available.

Why would I waste tokens vibe coding something that would go unmaintained in 6 months (because it is "free") over a properly funded project that will last much longer than that?

The cost of maintenance is never "free".

You dont have to vibecode and maintain it when there are 20 other projects that do the same or similar thing. And maintenance is not free, but you know waht's even more annoying? Getting locked into a product that is pressured to achieve VC returns and thus becomes enshittified. There is no moat here and it's painfully obvious that open source will win in this category in the long term.

> Getting locked into a product that is pressured to achieve VC returns and thus becomes enshittified. There is no moat here and it's painfully obvious that open source will win in this category in the long term.

Herdr is...open source? and is also compatible with the free software principles. So where is the "lock in"?

You have not answered how will Herdr (and others) fund themselves to maintain the project without some form of sustainable funding without VC funding?

Not that I support VC funding per se, but without meaningful donations to support the maintainers, this is usually what they end up doing.

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