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Goodbye, and Thanks for All the Bikesheds

queue.acm.org

July 18, 2026

13 min read

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

58/100

Summary

The "Bikeshed" column originated nearly 20 years ago from a casual email inquiry about writing on flash memory. It has since become an infrequent publication, appearing approximately once a year.

Key Takeaways

The article reflects on the author's experiences and observations regarding the evolution of free and open source software (FOSS) over nearly two decades.
LLM-assisted code reviews are currently a trending topic in the FOSS community, but the author expresses skepticism about their long-term economic viability.
The author draws parallels between the nature of bugs found by LLM tools and the strategic depth of chess, suggesting that LLMs can explore software issues more comprehensively than humans.
The economic model for LLM tools relies heavily on upfront training costs, while the resulting model weights are small and easily stored, raising questions about profitability.

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Community Sentiment

Mixed

Positives

LLM-assisted code review is already a game changer, with many commenters noting its significant impact on finding and fixing software bugs.
There's a strong belief that LLMs are evolving fast, and their usefulness is undeniable despite some skepticism about long-term disruption.

Concerns

Many commenters are frustrated with outdated views on LLMs, feeling that the prediction of them not being a disruptor is completely out of touch with current advancements.
Skeptics warn that the current arguments against LLMs overlook the rapid improvements and effectiveness they bring to code review processes.