April 8, 2026
Pi fight: who gets the last slice?
I've Sold Out
Open‑source star joins a startup, brings ‘pi,’ and the internet goes half‑baked
TLDR: An open‑source veteran joined Earendil and brought his “pi” coding tool. Comments split between congrats and fear of a repeat shutdown, fueled by “pi” briefly breaking under an AI provider ban, while jokers dunk on “Open pi” branding and a side debate flares over calling a critic a troll.
The dev behind beloved open‑source tools says “I’ve sold out,” announcing he’s joining startup Earendil and taking his tiny coding agent “pi” along for the ride. Cue the internet meltdown. Fans remember his past: he helped build the hit game toolkit libGDX, then watched RoboVM get sold and shut down—trauma that still stings. So when he promises, essentially, “this time is different,” some readers hear déjà vu.
The comments go full soap opera. One supporter is happy for him but drops a cold splash: “this time is different… until it’s not,” capturing the fear of another open‑source (aka OSS) dream going corporate. Another user reports pi broke today thanks to an Anthropic Claude AI ban on third‑party “harnesses” (wrappers), saying they’re waiting on a plugin fix—proof, skeptics say, that putting your tools in someone else’s walled garden can blow up a workday.
Meanwhile, the memes arrive piping hot. “At least they didn’t call it Open pi,” one commenter snarks, roasting the trend of slapping “Open” on things that later close. There’s also chatter over the post’s shout‑out to Armin as a polite “internet troll,” which triggered a mini‑feud about tone and labels. For deep divers, a related HN thread is bubbling. Bottom line: hope, side‑eye, and pie jokes are all on the menu.
Key Points
- •The author has joined Earendil and is bringing his coding agent “pi” to the company.
- •He recounts his open-source history with libGDX, widely adopted for Android and used by teams like Niantic, and long-term work on the commercial tool Spine.
- •He collaborated on RoboVM for running JVM code on iOS, built proprietary tools around it, and helped commercialize it while keeping the core open-source.
- •RoboVM was sold to Xamarin, which closed-sourced the core; after Xamarin’s sale, Microsoft shut RoboVM down.
- •The community quickly forked RoboVM into MobiVM, restoring full functionality; libGDX continues to use MobiVM for iOS. He notes OpenClaw runs on pi, drawing public attention to their relationship.