A couple years ago, I got into programming and fell down the rabbit hole of open-source software. I started realizing a lot of the commercial software I used had open-source alternatives. In 2020, those alternatives were good but not perfect replacements. With LLMs entering the scene, there are even more open-source alternatives now and they're narrowing the gap between proprietary options.

LLMs also got me thinking: will people continue using proprietary or opensource applications in the future when they can build their own personal application tailored specifically for their needs? I also started thinking that there are so many open-source directories out there already, so what value would another directory bring?

Then a solution to both questions gave me a light bulb moment.

The original opensource.builders just called things "alternatives." But that's too vague. Take Ghost and Shopify. You could call Ghost a Shopify alternative since both support blogging. But Shopify also has payments, inventory, checkout, and product management that Ghost doesn't. The label oversimplifies what they actually do.

So instead, we now track features and map where they live in the code. Once we had that, we realized you could pick specific features from different projects and get help building them into your own stack. You browse features, select what you need, and we generate a prompt with exact file paths and GitHub locations. Your AI learns from real implementations and helps you implement those features in your own codebase.

What's Next?

I'm using these principles at Openship to build management software for every vertical: e-commerce, hotels, restaurants, barbershops. Next week I'll share what we've built and how we're leveraging these platforms to create a decentralized marketplace where businesses own their storefronts.

opensource.builders helped us understand the landscape and build what was missing.

Try it: https://opensource.builders Ethos: https://opensource.builders/ethos Source: https://github.com/junaid33/opensource.builders