Rune is now open source
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Rune IDE is open-sourced under GPLv3 with a novel contributor revenue-sharing program.
Rune is a native graphical IDE built in Go around a character grid, not a terminal app. Its terminal initially lagged Alacritty/Ghostty/Kitty by nearly two orders of magnitude in PTY throughput, but profiling and algorithmic improvements closed that gap without abandoning Go. The IDE includes a network layer (rune:// scheme for remote workspaces) and extensions via gRPC. The project is licensed GPLv3; contributors retain copyright. Unstable Build will share a portion of revenue with participating contributors via an auditable ledger.
Rune currently first-class supports Go and Python; Rust and Zig are in beta. The company seeks community leads for other language ecosystems.
What commenters are saying
Commenters largely praised the GPLv3 license and no-CLA policy. The author confirmed the network can be disabled for offline use and runs on headscale/Tailscale under the hood. One commenter found the vim-mode onboarding too steep; the author acknowledged the friction. Another raised concerns that financial incentives for contributions could spawn spam, similar to Hacktoberfest. Several expressed interest in trying Rune, with requests for Fedora packaging and a video demo.