Trading openness for convenience: From app stores to AI assistants

Why subscription dependency threatens developer independence, and how to fight back.

App stores were the biggest step backward in software distribution, trading openness for convenience and giving companies the power to flip switches on features based on wealth. In this episode, Chris Heilmann, VP of Developer Relations at WeAreDevelopers, joins the We Love Open Source podcast to share why AI-assisted coding feels like subscription dependency in disguise, how agentic browsing resembles malware dreams, and how two blind developers from Australia built NVDA, proving anyone can write and publish software independent of ability.

Chris distinguishes between open web, open tech, and open source by their intermingling purposes. Open web means W3C standards and Creative Commons licenses reaching everyone everywhere. Open tech serves as an umbrella for hardware, software, and publication accessible for free or open to contribution. Open source requires publishing both software and source code while allowing outside contributions. The problem: Companies claim open source while blocking actual contribution. While working on Edge and Chromium, Chris saw restrictions on who could push code despite the project’s open source label. True openness means making contribution easy, like Visual Studio Code’s success through extension libraries rather than trying to do everything.

The danger today comes from trading openness for convenience. AI-assisted coding helps developers but creates subscription dependency when you can’t program without the AI assistant. Agentic browsing that searches, pays, and buys for you sounds convenient but mirrors exactly what malicious extensions tried to accomplish. App stores started this regression. Before, buying software on CD meant owning it permanently. With the open web, once something shipped it stayed accessible, got multiplied, archived, and distributed. Now companies flip switches to restrict features based on wealth, violating the principle that development should be independent of location, wealth, and ability.

Read more: The AI slop problem threatening open source maintainers

Chris highlights JAWS, a screen reader that stalled in supporting newer web features. Two blind developers from Australia built NVDA, which became the new standard. That’s open source power: Anyone regardless of ability can write and publish software. App stores broke this by letting companies dictate publishing conditions. OpenAI announced ChatGPT will have apps inside it, continuing this trend.

Beyond AI hype, Chris emphasizes open connectivity and decentralized identity. Logging in with Google or Twitter replaced having independent digital identity. Solutions exist using telephone numbers with built-in two-factor authentication through mobile phones and Bluetooth or NFC. Blockchain technology offers value beyond Bitcoin speculation for keeping digital identity open and safe.

Key takeaways

• App stores traded openness for convenience: Companies can now flip switches restricting features based on wealth, reversing the open web principle where published software stayed accessible to everyone regardless of location or ability.
• AI-assisted coding creates subscription dependency: When developers can’t program without AI assistants, they become dependent on companies running those bots. Agentic browsing mirrors malware goals.
• Open source enables contributions regardless of ability: When JAWS screen reader stalled, two blind developers from Australia built NVDA, which became the new standard. True openness means anyone can write and publish software independent of ability, wealth, or location.

Chris’s message challenges current trends: Convenience-driven tools from app stores to AI assistants erode the openness that made software development accessible to everyone. Society will benefit from AI because society will fight back against these restrictions.

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