August 11, 2026
Open source? Open season
Closing Canario Terminal source code
Developer shuts the doors on his app, and the internet instantly starts backseat-driving
TLDR: Raphael is closing the source code for his Canario app, saying public maintenance and AI spam ate up too much time. Commenters split fast: some defended his right to lock it down, while others argued he could have left the code visible without inviting the internet into his inbox.
A developer who’s spent years sharing his work with the public just announced he’s making his terminal app, Canario, closed source — and wow, the comment section showed up with opinions. His explanation was deeply personal: this was a tool he built for himself, not a startup moonshot, and he says the endless stream of bug reports, feature demands, and now AI-generated spam has turned “sharing code” into a part-time customer service job. He stressed there’s no spying built in, older source code still exists inside past Rio versions, and if people hate the move, they can use something else.
But the crowd was not content to simply nod and move on. The biggest fight? Whether he really had to “close” the code at all. Several commenters basically said, “Hold on — isn’t there a middle option?” Their pitch: just toss the code online, disable comments, ignore pull requests, and keep your peace. One even brought up the SQLite model: open to read, closed to random contributions. Others backed the developer hard, saying he’s exposing the ugly truth of modern open source — that people want free labor, and AI has made it absurdly easy to flood maintainers with low-effort junk.
The accidental comedy of the thread is that everyone agrees it’s his right, but then immediately launches into a mini courtroom drama about what “open source” really means. It’s less a software debate and more a classic internet genre: respectfully telling someone they’re doing their own project wrong.
Key Points
- •Raphael announced that Canario terminal is being moved from open source to closed source.
- •He said the main reason is limited time and energy to maintain Canario as an open-source project while continuing work on Rio and other projects.
- •Raphael stated that open-source maintenance includes handling issues, pull requests, discussions, and spam, and that AI has increased low-effort submissions.
- •He clarified that Canario does not include telemetry and only makes network requests to check for updates.
- •He said older versions of Rio still contain Canario’s source code for anyone who wants to fork it, and that Rio will continue to be maintained.