Using an open model feels surprisingly good

	Using an open model feels surprisingly good(matthewsaltz.com)
	309 points by msaltz 45 days ago \| 134 comments
	tl;dr: A Modal employee set up opencode with a self-hosted Kimi K3 inference endpoint on Modal instead of upgrading their Claude plan, and found the experience unexpectedly liberating. They describe owning the endpoint and controlling their own data as feeling "freeing"—akin to switching from a fancy IDE back to vim—despite not previously being an open-source enthusiast.
	HN Discussion: ↓The post is thinly veiled self-promotion or an advertisement for Modal ↓Frontier models like Claude are better for vague, one-shot prompts, limiting open models' appeal ↑Open/smaller models feel surprisingly capable and enable a better flow state, echoing the vim analogy ↑Freedom from vendor lock-in and controlling your own data is the real value ~Cost comparison data is missing and would make the case more compelling