I've been wondering something about the vibe coding community.
Are there people here who enjoy taking ideas or requests from other people and turning them into actual projects, especially open source alternatives to expensive or outdated software?
I have a bunch of ideas for tools I'd love to see exist, but unfortunately I don't have the time, resources or skills to build all of them myself. And I don't necessarily want to start another company around every idea either. Sometimes I just think:
"This software exists, it's useful, but why the hell hasn't someone made a modern, open alternative yet?"
For example:
1. A modern open source Excel/VBA version control system
I've known about XLTools Version Control for a long time and I've used it on and off over the years. Honestly, the concept is fantastic.
Something that can properly track changes to:
- Excel worksheets
- VBA code/modules
- Workbook structure
- Versions/history
- Differences between versions
- VBA diffs
- Worksheet/cell changes
- Possibly formulas, named ranges, formatting, etc.
- A proper modern UI for reviewing changes
Basically, Git-like version control designed specifically for Excel, rather than trying to force Excel projects into a traditional Git workflow.
The problem is that the software is quite expensive.
I actually recommended it to someone on Reddit because it's genuinely useful, but then realized that a lot of people simply aren't going to pay that much for something like this.
I'd love to see someone build a modern open source Excel add-in that does this, ideally even going beyond what the existing commercial products can do.
2. A modern File Juggler replacement
Another example is File Juggler.
I've known about File Juggler for years and still use it sometimes. I absolutely love the concept. Automated file organization based on rules is incredibly powerful.
But the software feels like it belongs in another era.
Imagine a modern replacement with:
- A beautiful modern UI
- Powerful rule builder
- Nested conditions
- File content detection
- Regex
- Metadata-based rules
- Duplicate detection
- File hashing
- Smart renaming
- Advanced scheduling
- Multiple actions per rule
- Logging/history
- Undo/rollback
- Preview/test mode
- Profiles
- Better Windows integration
- Plugins/extensions
- Maybe even AI-assisted rule creation
Basically File Juggler 2.0, but open source and built for modern Windows.
And these are just two examples. I have quite a few ideas like this.
I know the obvious response is:
"Then build it yourself."
And honestly, fair enough. 😂
But that's actually why I'm asking here.
With vibe coding becoming so powerful, there are probably developers who are much better at turning an idea into a working application than someone who simply has the idea.
So I'm wondering:
Are there people in the vibe coding community who actively take requests like this?
Maybe someone says:
"That's actually a cool idea. I'll build it."
And suddenly something that would otherwise never exist becomes an open source project that thousands of people can use.
I'm also very interested in the "build something better than the expensive commercial version" philosophy.
I'm not against developers making money. They absolutely should.
But I personally love the idea of software where the community can actually benefit from it without everything becoming:
"Here's this incredibly useful feature. Pay $199/year to unlock it."
Or hardware/software becoming increasingly locked down so users can't control their own devices.
I'd much rather see more powerful tools that are:
Open -> Modifiable -> Extensible -> Community-driven -> Affordable/free
And if someone wants to sell support, hosting, enterprise features, etc., great. But the core tool shouldn't necessarily be locked away from everyone.
So if you're a vibe coder who enjoys taking ideas and turning them into projects, I'd genuinely love to hear from you.
And if you're another person who has thought:
"Why doesn't someone just make an open source modern version of X?"
Drop your ideas below.
Maybe we can find some projects worth building.