Show HN: Mu – The Micro Network
34 points
by asim
4 days ago
| 8 comments
| github.com
| HN
asim
10 minutes ago
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Hey! I think I actually posted this some days ago and it went nowhere. I keep looking for feedback but you know one of those karmic things, we don't always get it when we want it but maybe when we need it.

I guess I just look at the way tech is now and feel disappointed. Its very addictive, "social" yet lonely. I don't find the alternative networks like Reddit, Mastodon, etc much better. I have held off doing anything, cut back most of my social usage but still found problems and years ago, yes I tried to make this idea work and shut it down. But I've felt like I really needed a solution, and so I use this everyday as an alternative to other forms of media consumption. And the hope is longer term it continues to develop as a useful utility. I'll keep investing time in, slowly iterating, figuring out what works and what doesn't. I'm not looking to gamify it or seeking fame or notoriety. Tbh, if it stays small great, if I can figure out how to make "conversational networks" [1] work even better. Anyway, happy to answer questions.

[1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.11714

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CGamesPlay
11 minutes ago
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They say that it's free from algorithms, but I found several uses of hash maps just from a quick glance through the source.
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threethirtytwo
3 hours ago
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There is more honesty in failing for the sake of ideals than in winning without them. It is a story that shaped many before and will shape many after, and mu may simply be one more instance of that enduring truth.
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GaryBluto
2 hours ago
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Why am I unable to test any of it's features without being prompted to install a Chromium "app"?
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safety1st
49 minutes ago
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Is this why nothing happens when I click on any of the services in Firefox? There is no feedback at all.

I don't know that there's much value to, for example, creating another web based YouTube front-end when Invidious exists

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uka
4 hours ago
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Ambitious. Very hard to achieve. But if we use go, github and discord for building the "anti big tech" stack - then we have failed from the start.
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kennywinker
3 hours ago
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Go is a programming language. It’s not exactly pushing google’s ad agenda.

Your criticism of using github and discord are somewhat valid, but asking people to re-invent the wheel while they re-invent the bicycle seems like arbitrarily making up rules so everyone fails. Is there some influence you expect to leak into their platform thru github or discord?

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uka
50 minutes ago
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C is also a programming language. Unlike go it foes not depend on a big tech company for it to live. No need to reinvent the wheel. Just use wheel that does not come with a big techh bagagge.
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threethirtytwo
3 hours ago
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They are standing on the shoulders of giants. There's nothing wrong with the ideals and the motivation, but it begs the question: Could Mu exist without go? could go exist without google? Could Mu exist without google?

And all of that culminates with: Could the level of technology and the internet reach the state it is today without big tech? And if not, was the price we paid to get here worth it?

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treyd
3 hours ago
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> It’s not exactly pushing google’s ad agenda.

Maybe not their ad agenda, but certainly one of their agendas. Specifically, the agenda they have to get young, inexperienced developers prepared for specifically the software development practices they employ internally.

It was directly stated that "Go is not for clever developers" and that their target is recent graduates with limited experience. It punishes you for trying to think about what you're building and to design sophisticated software, relying more on brute force. It doesn't encourage you to reach higher.

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hn_throw2025
33 minutes ago
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I don’t know where you are on your career journey, but having worked with countless clients, business domains, and projects as a freelancer I value readability over everything else.

If you’re working on a greenfield project in a team of one then I suppose it’s great to get in an expressive mood and emit your code poetry from those fingertips.

It’s very different to inherit a quirky puzzle and reverse engineer a mental model from there.

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habbekrats
3 hours ago
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go does push silly things. besides being overhyped, they block anonimizing tech when accessing package repos for example.

you dont want anything to do with google or anything they make or host. they will only do it to extract shit from you. they dont give nything dont be naive.

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myaccountonhn
2 hours ago
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And AI-powered chat.

Otherwise it looked very interesting, I like the idea of a flat-fee structure without subscriptions.

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modelorona
4 hours ago
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Why go?
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Pufferbo
1 hour ago
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Is this related to the defunct mu.app from a few years back?
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Pufferbo
1 hour ago
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Answer: yes it is, I think
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volemo
3 hours ago
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Sounds like App.net all over again.
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Uptrenda
1 hour ago
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If you're still using all the same services though how exactly are you winning over addictive behaviour? eeehhhhh???
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