The new AI war of explanatory analogies
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Dirk Riehle
@dirkriehle@hachyderm.io
mastodon 4.7.3Researcher, entrepreneur, professor; interested in open source, inner source, and product strategy
228 Followers
52 Following
19 Posts
Joined December 18, 2022
Today's workplace: Siemens Open Source
The future of vibe coding, if any
tl;dr The future of vibe coding is end-user programming; another label for a larger danger. For a short moment, the web was abuzz about vibe coding, where non-professionals use a code AI and other assisting tools to develop software themselves. The idea was that anyone could vibe-code and that all the practices of professional software engineering didn't really matter: You should go with the flow, accept suggestions, and the tools will…
https://dirkriehle.com/2026/04/11/the-future-of-vibe-coding-if-any/
I’m amused, legally amused
You may have followed the ONLYOFFICE vs. Euro-Office kerfuffle about commercial open source licensing. Ascensio Systems SIA, the company behind ONLYOFFICE, a Microsoft Office like office suite, makes its money by selling commercial licenses to OPENOFFICE. Like many so-called commercial open source vendors, it provides its software under an open source license but also tries to keep others from distributing their programs so that customers can…
Say what you will about Berlin public transport and morning traffic, if you know what you are doing, you can get there in half the time compared to what the apps are telling you. @BVG_Info@mastodon.social
The 'hood is hoppin' because Deutschrap Späti is here
Russia's wider aggression across Europe https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g44gprnnvo
Why would anyone complain about penalizing research papers with fake citations?
Arxiv, the popular preprint server, recently decided to penalize submitters of articles that contain non-existing references, presumably hallucinated by an AI. All authors will be sent to the doghouse, not just the first author. They'll be blocked for a year from submitting new articles and will have their whole history reviewed, among other sanctions. While this new rule was generally met…
Open source and digital sovereignty
Digital sovereignty is on everyone's mind these days, and open source is seen as a critical enabler. But how, and at what costs? First off, it is not just about open source code. Next to code, you also need to consider your data and where it resides. The code and the data dimension then create the space of digital sovereignty (or the lack thereof).
https://dirkriehle.com/2026/05/13/open-source-and-digital-sovereignty/
Srsly, @berlinairport? More than 30min to get the luggage out in the delivery belt? You can do better than this.
I wonder: Is this situation a question for Ms. Manners?
Beware of an AI’s authoritative voice
Nothing drives home the silliness of this early (LLM) AI frenzy better than a personal experience. Here is mine. Over twenty years ago, when I was a student at Stanford and rather poor (think six digit student loan), I was trying to make a cheese fondue for my friends. Problem was that the original ingredients were so expensive that I had to make do with what I could find at an affordable price.
https://dirkriehle.com/2026/04/24/beware-of-an-ais-authoritative-voice/
Where am I?
Is commercial open source the right choice for your startup?
I'll be on a panel at the UC Open Summit 2026 in a few hours. The moderator carved out for me the question: When should you make a COSS play? (She really liked that phrasing.) Here is my panel-size soundbite: The term "commercial open source" was coined as a marketing term by Clint Oram of SugarCRM, around 2004. SugarCRM provided their software as a commercial product, but also made it available under an open…
https://dirkriehle.com/2026/04/23/is-commercial-open-source-the-right-choice-for-your-startup/
Gee, if memory serves me right, this was the entrance street to Sun Labs, now just called Google
Understanding sustainable growth in industrial open source software through collaboration networks (Shi et al., IEEE Computer)
I'm happy to report that the 40th article in the open source column of IEEE Computer has been published. As always, please consider writing an article proposal! Abstract This article examines the evolutionary dynamics of the FreeCAD ecosystem by combining longitudinal OpenRank measurements with multidimensional collaboration network analysis,…
For the press: How to talk about open source without making a mess
Based on years of experience, and a fair bit of frustration, I have some recommendations about choice of words for journalists when writing about open-source software and its role in running data centers and enabling digital sovereignty. Open-source software vs. open source solution. This is the big one. Software is an artifact (code) and a solution typically is a product by a vendor.
https://dirkriehle.com/2026/04/13/for-the-press-how-to-talk-about-open-source-without-making-a-mess/
Balin ick liebe dir
Replying to
@draNgNon@hachyderm.io True. With your own or rented copier it would probably be more like $20