[rurp]

A huge part of what attracted me to programming was how free and open it was. The fact that literally anyone with a computer could install Python/Javascript/etc for free and create virtually any software they wanted, limited only by their own abilities and determination, was wildly exciting to me. I would say empowering, if that weren't such a cheesy overused term. If you were any good at it, you could get a great job at an interesting company.

Now like you said we're entering a world where anyone with a computer can pay a giant tech company thousands of dollars a year to spin up some agents for them. That's much less exciting to me, and I'm certain I would not enter the field if I were just starting out right now (assuming there even was a junior job available).

We've seen how big tech monopolies treat domains they control like search and social media. They try to extract all of the value, leaving nothing for the individual or common good, and they're quite effective at it. I'm not looking forward to them gatekeeping the field of software development as a whole.

[znpy]

> A huge part of what attracted me to programming was how free and open it was. The fact that literally anyone with a computer could install Python/Javascript/etc for free and create virtually any software they wanted, limited only by their own abilities and determination, was wildly exciting to me.

but you can still do that, AI is not preventing you from doing any of that in any way.

[benterix]

True, but this is like saying 10 years ago: you don't need to learn React, you can continue coding in Angular.

People do want to learn and use new tech but instead what is promoted is an access to a proprietary and (increasingly more) expensive API.

[raxxorraxor]

React is really a bad example because you really don't need it. I am no web dev, but I think React is an abomination. The reason I can confidently say it without knowing every detail there is to it is simply that there aren't impressive websites that show it. There should be some that by now. The number of reused components is probably quite analogous to reused classes in OO. It can make sense, but sometimes it also sometimes doesn't.

Some suggested it could become web standard and I just hope it doesn't. React is beyond opinionated. It certainly has a raison d'être for some applications, but the problem is simply that it didn't put our less buggy or generally better sites.

[nurettin]

Internally I oppose react as much as possible. The reason beginners use it is because of job security. The reason experts start projects with it is because it enforces encapsulation, inversion of control and declarative code. Can you do all those yourself in freeform js? yes, of course. It is their way of imposing these traits.

[benterix]

Fortunately, we do have more or less open models, and they get better and better each year.

Unfortunately, sama & co hunger for global domination makes them more and more expensive to run.