Open Source Barware: free, local-first bar inventory software (GPLv3)

by RichBJamison • 14 days ago

34 18 14 days ago

bbg2401• 14 days ago

Check back Friday for the next build — same download page, fresh features, zero cost.

I’m sorry to waste so many comments complaining about how people use AI but the phrasing above sits in uncanny valley for me.

I don’t know if the culture around consumption of vibe coded apps is different and the style used to describe projects is optimal for that audience , or if the projects simply don’t have an audience so the uncanny tone is just not an issue.

b--l• 14 days ago

It's one of claude models.

We've seen it a lot so it' become extremely grating to us. And it's always the same speech patterns.

I really can't stand it. I don't even think it's intentional from anthropic.

massagedpelican2• 14 days ago

I think it's hard to say one way or another. My guess is the latter, or perhaps the audience isn't even aware it's vibe coded.

I (like many other software folks) are aware of AI-isms in writing, so when I see something that it so obviously AI generated in a project, it's equivalent to a giant red waving flag.

For someone who doesn't interact with LLMs regularly? I have no idea, maybe it sounds great to them. Most non-tech folks I interact with to don't seem to have as well-tuned AI sense, whether it be image, video or text

fragmede• 14 days ago

perhaps the audience isn't even aware it's vibe coded.

Why does the audience care if it's vibecoded? So long as it works and does the job, does it matter if the POS software was written by humans or an AI? Does it solve their problem? Does it suck less than the alternatives? Is it cheaper?

TrajansRow• 14 days ago

I think “uncanny” is a good way to describe everything about this tool. I can’t say really whether the app itself is on target or not, but I have a feeling that without an iPad/mobile terminal that it’s DOA anyway.

edoceo• 14 days ago

I don't catch that as AI voice.

I spend a lot of time with non-tech-industry folks. Since many in the USA have low reading levels and marketing teams keep telling me to write for 6th grade reading level maybe GenPop doesn't even notice this drivel in the middle of all the other advertising drivel?

sublinear2• 14 days ago

I don't know much about running a bar apart from being a regular and sticking around for closing time every now and then.

This looks like an opinionated frontend for a spreadsheet. There are tons of those already. Does this really reduce any of the complexity well enough to be better?

I think people would be more convinced with a demo compared to the existing workflows it's trying to replace.

adamsiem2• 14 days ago

It’s hopefully an alternative to paying a company like Orca $200/mo. (It used to be $5000 annually, sold solely on the value of potential losses saved.) https://orcainventory.com/

sublinear2• 13 days ago

That still costs less than the revenue brought in from a single bar regular (~$100 a week). It also probably works better and staff are more likely to be familiar with it, etc.

I'm not saying SaaS is always the right answer, but that's probably why it succeeds at that pricing.

How an alternative is pitched really does matter. It's not enough to just point out flaws with the competitor. Open source also requires its own set of incentives to get meaningful contributions. It has to solve a set of problems that are interesting and impactful to the contributors.

It sounds like an uphill battle for this project.

sandworm101• 14 days ago

Why does it need cloud AI to read invoices? Basic foss OCR can do this very well, so too the most basic local AI. Wrangling claude to read reciepts is using a tomahawk to kill ants.

Can i point it at a local AI server? Can i feed it a pdf that i make myself using my own OCR?

adamsiem2• 14 days ago

They’ll fix that two Fridays from now. But deploy on Monday. Never Friday.

throwaway81523• 14 days ago

This looks scary. Website is way too slick and it says something about being a Chrome side-something? Ah someone said vibe code, and I guess that explains the slickness and images too.

I'd prefer a plain text description of what the program actually does. A screen shot here or there might be tolerable but please, no splash screens or uninformative background pics.

lucasrufkahr• 14 days ago

I’m sorry this looks like junk.

jampy-v72• 14 days ago

Why? The app looks great imo.

jampy-v72• 14 days ago

Great looking app tho. I could not run in on corp. laptop due to blocked PS. HOwever, python server.py works...

If this is all AI, I'm speech less.

ehaughee• 13 days ago

Another option in this space: https://barassistant.app/

Open Source Barware: free, local-first bar inventory software (GPLv3)

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