开发工具必须开源

面向终端用户的开源软件，其长期以来的一个论点始终是：用户拥有检查并修改软件工作方式的自由。

但对大多数人——即使是专业程序员——而言，现实是，这种自由更多意味着能够依靠其他人去完成这些工作。大多数人无法为阅读、理解并修改自己经常使用的工具代码投入足够多的时间。

我认为，LLM 已经以一种方式改变了这笔账，使最初的理想变得更可实现。

每天我都会多次向普通的 Claude 对话提出类似请求：Clone x/y from GitHub and tell me how Z works。

过去，仅仅为了开始折腾软件而让它成功编译，就已经有足够大的阻力，以至于我经常懒得继续。现在，我把这视为一项几乎不需要时间投入的挑战：让 Codex 或 Claude Code 检出并构建 X，十分钟后再回来看看它完成得怎么样。

我目前还没有形成经常修改自己所用软件的习惯，但我已经能看到一条通往这一目标的路径；而在大约一年前，这条路径还并不存在。

One of the arguments for open source software for end-users has always been the freedom to examine and modify how that software works.

The reality for most people - even expert programmers - has been that the freedom is more about being able to lean on other people to do that. Most people can't justify the time commitment needed to read and then modify the code for tools they use very often.

I think LLMs have changed that equation in a way that makes the original dream much more feasible.

Several times a day I'll prompt regular Claude chat to "Clone x/y from GitHub and tell me how Z works".

Getting software to compile in order to start hacking on it used to be enough friction that I often wouldn't bother. Now I treat that as a zero time investment challenge: tell Codex or Claude Code to checkout and build X and then come back ten minutes later and see how it got on.

I'm not habitually modifying the software I use yet, but I can see a path to that which didn't exist a year or so ago.