--- title: Programming used to be free | daily.dev description: A personal reflection on how free and open-source software democratized programming, enabling people with limited resources to enter the field. The author... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/programming-used-to-be-free-ceydkqepr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Programming used to be free | daily.dev og:description: A personal reflection on how free and open-source software democratized programming, enabling people with limited resources to enter the field. The author... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/programming-used-to-be-free-ceydkqepr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/CeydkQepR.png og:image:alt: Programming used to be free og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Programming used to be free **[Lobsters](https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters)** · 7 min read · 53 upvotes · 16 comments ## Summary A personal reflection on how free and open-source software democratized programming, enabling people with limited resources to enter the field. The author draws a parallel to the pre-FOSS era of expensive proprietary software and warns that LLM-centric development workflows risk recreating that same plutocracy — where meaningful participation requires expensive hardware or paid subscriptions, locking out hobbyists, developers in underdeveloped countries, and those without institutional backing. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@petermrozek** · 11 upvotes > I have a similar background (only 20 years earlier than 2010, so "I was there Gandalf" 😁). Prior to the internet cafe revolution in the late 90s (at least in my region), we also had limited resources. > > My first true compiler was "unofficial" (Turbo Pascal 7; I'm not including QBasic in this, but yes I used it prior). Later I had to make due with what I had - some computing magazines seldom gave full versions of development environments - Delphi 2, for instance, when people used pirated versions of Delphi 5 (I stayed with an official version 2). > > Good times. 😊 > > As for LLMs, without all that... **@akkitto** · 6 upvotes > This is one of those situations, where I proclaim, that this is mostly the users' fault. For once, start thinking about what you are actually doing and what consequences it might have. > > People nowadays usually see something new and say "wow, that's great, it's soooo easy, I'm gonna use this" instead of asking oneself, what the downsides might be. I'm not saying, that anyone should become the boomer saying stuff like "never change a running system". I'm saying, that perhaps use the new stuff in ways, that are less harmful, dampening the clearly negative consequences, like the ones portrayed in... **@uranio** · 3 upvotes > The same reflection crossed my mind this morning: my professional journey is quite similar to the author's, though I come from the 80s generation. As an IT Lead, I see many companies currently struggling to figure out the best way to utilize Claude, especially in terms of cost-efficiency. Many businesses with Team profiles find themselves needing to add extra credit daily. While corporations will eventually find the right configuration, a bigger question remains: can students or those just starting out afford at least $20 a month for such limited returns? The only viable solution seems to be... **@confidentcoding** · 2 upvotes > Used to get paid to code. Now I pay to code. **@daniel8000** · 1 upvotes > Doomerism that I strongly support. Its better to be safe than sorry. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Histomat of F/OSS: We should reclaim LLMs, not reject them](https://daily.dev/posts/histomat-of-f-oss-we-should-reclaim-llms-not-reject-them-vsalilgp9) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The people vs the AI overlords](https://daily.dev/posts/the-people-vs-the-ai-overlords-kduxszp2n) · Planet Python · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Code is cheap. Show me the talk.](https://daily.dev/posts/code-is-cheap-show-me-the-talk--gjasawxps) · Hacker News · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#accessibility](https://daily.dev/tags/accessibility), [#vibe-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/vibe-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/programming-used-to-be-free-ceydkqepr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Programming used to be free","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/programming-used-to-be-free-ceydkqepr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/programming-used-to-be-free-ceydkqepr"},"datePublished":"2026-04-13T17:34:50.945Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T17:35:14.083Z","description":"A personal reflection on how free and open-source software democratized programming, enabling people with limited resources to enter the field. 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Prior to the internet cafe revolution in the late 90s (at least in my region), we also had limited resources.\nMy first true compiler was “unofficial” (Turbo Pascal 7; I’m not including QBasic in this, but yes I used it prior). Later I had to make due with what I had - some computing magazines seldom gave full versions of development environments - Delphi 2, for instance, when people used pirated versions of Delphi 5 (I stayed with an official version 2).\nGood times. 😊\nAs for LLMs, without all that marketing all I see is a solution looking for a problem. And not a great solution, but rather a mediocre one, and an inefficient one top of that. I seldom use it when designing solutions (as a sort of a sparring partner), but the coding part is still done by hand. I had the same thing with StackOverflow - if I ever used that, it was for that one line of code that calls what I need and then I built around that by myself.\nAs for the whole argument of programming becoming inaccessible again, it’s really not. The cost efficiency of using LLMs is low and will probably stay quite low (a lesson some managers are beginning to learn the hard way right now), so we can expect it to level out (as with anything hype- or marketing-driven). The “AI market” is constantly evolving and the top solutions today will be obsolete by next year. I still stand by my opinion that LLMs will become our assistants that will empower us and make us move faster (sparring partners), but will not replace us. If anything, someone has to take responsibility. 😉","datePublished":"2026-04-15T09:01:08.123Z","dateModified":"2026-04-15T11:18:03.925Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/CeydkQepR#c-GspkqMXQ6","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Peter Mrożek","url":"https://daily.dev/petermrozek","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--pBfYX68K--/f_auto/v1769247960/avatars/avatar_Qz65P1nVw3Bu6C5YwaZgA?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":11}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is one of those situations, where I proclaim, that this is mostly the users’ fault. For once, start thinking about what you are actually doing and what consequences it might have.\nPeople nowadays usually see something new and say “wow, that’s great, it’s soooo easy, I’m gonna use this” instead of asking oneself, what the downsides might be. I’m not saying, that anyone should become the boomer saying stuff like “never change a running system”. I’m saying, that perhaps use the new stuff in ways, that are less harmful, dampening the clearly negative consequences, like the ones portrayed in this article.\nPeople need to re-learn caring and critical thinking, not only, but especially in the technical area, where everyone uses un-rooted Android phones with all the Google crap or let all their private images and videos be scanned in the Apple cloud, alerting the authorities, because you have a picture of yourself as a minor saved there.","datePublished":"2026-04-15T11:50:55.955Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/CeydkQepR#c-91CkzKNJT","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/akkitto","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--FtwJqX4c--/f_auto/v1754900041/avatars/avatar_29TCpY2hJR72V3BlxPXzX?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The same reflection crossed my mind this morning: my professional journey is quite similar to the author’s, though I come from the 80s generation. As an IT Lead, I see many companies currently struggling to figure out the best way to utilize Claude, especially in terms of cost-efficiency. Many businesses with Team profiles find themselves needing to add extra credit daily. While corporations will eventually find the right configuration, a bigger question remains: can students or those just starting out afford at least $20 a month for such limited returns? The only viable solution seems to be integrating local open-source models to provide the full experience currently locked behind paywalls. However, this would require a price drop for high-performance hardware, which seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.","datePublished":"2026-04-15T09:37:58.646Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/CeydkQepR#c-zqhEjwwiZ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Leonardo Martellini","url":"https://daily.dev/uranio","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--guVbxs5e--/f_auto/v1738411405/avatars/avatar_PEVk9fU8AICgmrowHdPIK"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Used to get paid to code. Now I pay to code.","datePublished":"2026-04-15T19:10:45.555Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/CeydkQepR#c-CDoZ8WcWD","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lars Faye | Confident Coding","url":"https://daily.dev/confidentcoding","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--OGZu5DEc--/f_auto/v1772569630/avatars/avatar_umWZ9aQAng34qk5aaJl2q?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Doomerism that I strongly support. Its better to be safe than sorry.","datePublished":"2026-04-18T23:18:02.818Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/CeydkQepR#c-9nNxAjLi6","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/daniel8000","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--F_RltCZK--/f_auto/v1738746891/avatars/avatar_SOwG1kJqf6HK6TkGmZH45"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} ```