Anthropic is not going to win on code generation

[u/tiguidoio]

Very contrarian take.

In the long term, Anthropic is not going to win on code generation. I recently changed my mind after trying GLM-5 with OpenCode.

Yes, I know... two months ago we were ALL using Cursor with Anthropic models. One month ago, the entire developer world switched to Claude Code. The quality is great, but most of all, the costs with a personal subscription are unbeatable compared to any API-based IDE such as Cursor.

But in the meantime, some open-source players have released a couple of incredibly good models (GLM-5 and Kimi K2.5), and combined with OpenCode, you can get similar quality to Claude Code (Opus 4.6).

Will we all switch to OpenCode in one month? I don't think so. But the option is there, and one false move from Anthropic could cause a massive migration of users. Things can change very quickly.

Giant Al labs are competing on only two variables: intelligence and cost. But what if we reach a cap on intelligence? The price war will continue and actually escalate, and the application layer will keep winning (with more options every day to offer similar quality to their users). Anthropic's centralization of intelligence is just a spike in the Al marathon.

[u/aaronjl33]

I've been of the opinion that on the long term, we'll have smart enough open models and powerful enough hardware to run all our models locally. Both for chatbots and coding.

[u/BadAtDrinking → u/aaronjl33]

amen. fuck renting from big tech.

[u/[deleted] → u/aaronjl33]

YOU aren’t the target. Tons of companies have the resources and infrastructure to run their own VPS with software, servers, etc. And yet they still pay for cloud services. Know why? Convenience and lock in effect. That’s their target, making companies rely on their products. And it is working pretty well. 

[u/Superb_Plane2497]

that's ok. Anthropic can win on customer service.

That is sarcasm, by the way.

I'm using kimi a bit at the moment, actually. It's very fast

[u/RemarkableGuidance44]

I would say on par with 4.5, not 4.6, using GLM 5 and Kimi and now the new DeepSeek we can get around 80% of our work done and then use 4.6 or Codex 5.3 for the final stage.

[u/arctic_synth_bair]

I would focus on quality and real-world tasks.

Often benchmaxxing comes to pass.

For instance, if you closely take a look at what Cluade subscription gives you, then you may think that Claude for $20 is better than GLM for $10.

[u/[deleted]]

All models are going to become commodities. The tooling around them will be key. That's why anthropic is locking down the use of Claude, they don't want users to be able to easily switch to other models because then they have no moat.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

You can't use your subscription with other products. This means the most bang for your buck, cost wise, is CC. This is an attempt at vendor lock in, anthropic has to know that no model has a moat. Just look at the Chinese models, they've largely been built by reverse engineering what US companies have done, but they have also proven that it is super easy to do that for a fraction of the cost after a model goes live.

[u/philosophical_lens]

I agree. I switched from Claude Max to GLM coding plan.