Trae: AI Code Editor from ByteDance
60 comments
·January 24, 2025Dinux
I don't see anything about source available, git repository links or opensource licensing. Why would I switch from a free and opensource IDE to a closed source IDE offering no benefits?
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alenrozac
Remember, if it's free, you're the product.
How common is this in privacy policies? > For security and privacy reasons, we request that you abstain from disclosing personal information, including passwords, credit card numbers, or other confidential data. Our commitment to safeguarding your privacy is unwavering, but the security of personal information also relies on safe user practices.
whiplash451
> Remember, if it's free, you're the product
That was until the 2020s.
Now you pay and you are the product.
KineticLensman
Actually you often aren't the product, you are instead the raw material from which Meta/Google/etc creates their saleable products: e.g. profiles of recipients for targeted ads.
aaomidi
If not explicit, this is practically applicable to every ai chat bot out there with limited exceptions.
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poisonborz
However true this is _here_, I really dislike this sentence, as it spills capitalist sentiment and distrust. How much are you the product when using Firefox (even if Mozilla gets ad revenue). How much are you the product with an OSS or community product, or a free tier for a reputable cloud offering?
idle_zealot
Exactly. The phrase is wrong in every sense. You're pointing out the common case where something is free and offered in good faith (a terrifying and confusing concept for the Free Market faithful). There is also the exceedingly common case of both paying for something and being screwed by whoever sold it to you. Eg buying a Windows license and getting ads in the start menu.
The real lesson is: look at incentives/motivations. Are you transacting with a group that has power to unilaterally determine terms and reason to weigh them in their favor? They will.
xeonmc
In other words: “If it sounds too good to be true, it is.”
mark_l_watson
I worry about privacy issues for all LLM systems that are not running on my own computer (I use Ollama, but there are many other fine tools to use).
That said, I have been using Trae to design, code, and debug programming examples for a new book I am writing. I also use Grok, Meta’s models, Claude, and OpenAI for design, coding, and trouble shooting problems.
For ideological reasons I start work with local models on Ollama, but as needed I will use everything available, if needed.
donatj
Does it do anything that VSCode with Copilot doesn't?
loloquwowndueo
Send your code to China.
lm28469
But at least it doesn't send it to the US
danielbln
Well, their backend is using Claude, so with this editor you're sending it to both, the US and China.
d_503
I'd send code to the US, rather than China.
loloquwowndueo
Well what’s the saying? If you love your code, set it free? :)
gandalfthepink
I love this guy/gal/(it!!??)
bluetidepro
Copilot doesn't have full repo/project knowledge like this/Windsurf/Cursor, that's the biggest benefit of these AI specific VSCode forks. These AI forks can edit and take context from your entire project folder. Copilot currently only looks at the specific open file you have, and does not have full project knowledge.
ahartmetz
That is like "New operating system!" (actually 99% a copy of Debian with a different name)
jscheel
I believe the lead of this at ByteDance said that Trae is only focused on go and js/ts right now.
bearjaws
Been watching too much Primeagen.
chvid
It is really good plus it allows you to use Claude 3.5 for free (probably until ByteDance implements their own model).
danielbln
Yeah, the privacy policy is dog shit, but it does work quite well (especially in builder mode).
MassiveQuasar
Why not use Cursor at that point ?
chvid
As far as I can tell this is a better, more polished product. And they are giving away high quality model access for free.
monsieurbanana
Cursor isn't free, at least not for Claude 3.5
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ligamential
Only the OSX version available, with a waitlist for windows.
cess11
Sending proprietary code through TikTok to a US corporation seems like a hard sell. Who would do this?
lifestyleguru
I became unemployable sometime five years ago, throwing my CV into the abyss since then. This video alone almost gives me epilepsy with music and flickering. Is this how software development looks right now? Every code snipped including secrets goes to some remote server?
danielbln
Slightly off-topic, but you really shouldn't have any secrets in your code (assuming you mean secrets as in credentials, not as in trade secrets).
lifestyleguru
The file(s) with credentials are still somewhere out there, so you never open and edit them with the IDE?
jgaa
I use a dedicated PC with Ubuntu for the kind of AI assisted development where the AI's has access to the disk.
The only secrets it has are the API key to the AI, a temporary ssh key that can be used with git to access the github repository, and whatever the Brave browser stores for ChatGPT's website. Nothing else. No production keys, no CI keys no code signing keys.
Kind of the same restrictions I use on anything running Microsoft Windows.
donatj
Roughly, yes.
I know a lot of developers who have leaned into using AI heavily in their workflow.
I also know a handful of graybeards who refuse on either moral grounds or general distrust.
The output of the prior group though is undeniably, and I really think one is going to have to learn the tools to stay competitive.
blagie
The distrust is well-warranted, but the solution is unclear.
You can't fight the invisible hand of the free market. Without AI, you're obsolete now. With AI, humanity is obsolete soon.
Posted yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42799540 (228 points, 383 comments)