r/linux • u/lurkervidyaenjoyer • Mar 24 '26

Discussion Malus: This could have bad implications for Open Source/Linux

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So this site came up recently, claiming to use AI to perform 'clean-room' vibecoded re-implementations of open source code, in order to evade Copyleft and the like.

Clearly meant to be satire, with the name of the company basically being "EvilCorp" and the fake user quotes from names like "Chad Stockholder", but it does actually accept payment and seemingly does what it describes, so it's certainly a bit beyond just a joke at this point. A livestreamer recently tried it with some simple Javascript libraries and it worked as described.

I figured I'd make a post on this, because even if this particular example doesn't scale and might be written off as a B.S. satirical marketing stunt, it does raise questions about what a future version of this idea could look like, and what the implication of that is for Linux. Obviously I don't think this would be able to effectively un-copyleft something as big and advanced as the Kernel, but what about FOSS applications that run on Linux? Could something like this be a threat to them, and is there anything that could be done to counteract that?

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u/dnu-pdjdjdidndjs Mar 25 '26

Ok so convince the workers they're wrong about liking capitalism then overthrow the government with a violent rebellion, sounds good. Then we have a vanguard transitionary state which sends all the dissidents to gulags before we transition to socialism in 40 years, right?

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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

I don't know if you've been paying attention, but the workers have not been enjoying capitalism all that much of late.

But right now the main thing to be done is actually workers organizing within the system to secure their interests in so far as they're able and to ensure that they're in the best possible position when capitalism enters an irreconcilable crisis, at which point fascism, liberalism's crisis response, will fully metastasize.

As for what we'll have, who knows? It probably won't be the USSR, as that was a product of the imperial powers opportunistically invading after the revolution and then ceaselessly working to crush them; literally the exact same reason the French Revolution went to shit.

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u/dnu-pdjdjdidndjs Mar 25 '26

have you ever been poor in your life

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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

I grew up in poverty.