Login required without a reason + Trial without sign in + Offline mode

[swsnider]

Discord username (optional)

No response

Describe the bug

I downloaded warp for the first time based on a link someone sent me about it being in public beta, but I'm immediately presented with a login form that I cannot dismiss. I know I cannot be the only developer who would never do a cloud login to use a terminal, let alone do it without any indication why it's needed or what it implies will be collected/transmitted to the warp team.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce:

1. Go to https://www.warp.dev
2. Click on Download
3. Drag app to Applications
4. Run Warp

Expected behaviour

A terminal emulator or similar experience opening quickly and slickly

Screenshots

No response

Operating System

MacOS

OS Version

No response

Additional context

No response

[stevo-knievo]

+1 this should be optional.

[arif-desu]

+1 Make login optional only.

[pepehandsjpg]

• 1 this should be optional.

[myoffe]

I stumbled upon your website via a google search for a git command (nice SEO) I was curious, so I watched the 9 minute demo I downloaded it. I opened it. I saw that you need to login, I was immediately confused, and looked for more information online. I don't know if I'm going to use it now. This is a big deterrent.

You are losing many potential users because of this. There is absolutely no reason why this shouldn't be optional. I prefer to pay for the app rather than being forced to sign up for using a terminal.

[lpicanco]

+1 Please make the login and cloud functions optional

[Tekh-ops]

Stop acting like privileged people. It is their tool, they can do what they want to make and function warp. And if not, then go back to your ttys.

[notstephen]

That's precisely what people are doing.

Avoiding the whole debate about whether a terminal should include mandatory login is there any harm in people explaining why they uninstalled?

[mt-matthias]

Stop acting like privileged people. It is their tool, they can do what they want to make and function warp.

They can. We can also decide not to use it. Now, if I was creating a product, I would appreciate potential customers telling me why they are not using it, and what it would take for me to get them on board. Then I can choose to address those lost customers/sales - or not, if I do not deem it worth it.

I, for instance, have been evaluating Warp for a while and would happily pay actual money for it (as in: a single, up front license purchase). However, I am hesitant to use any product that requires an online login without very good reason, and I have yet to see a very good reason for Warp to require a login for its basic functionality as a terminal emulator.

[danvpeterson]

I absolutely love the app, but as others have said, at almost any bigger company anything that requires a login is immediately going to get a nope if there are any similar apps available when it's reviewed by an IT or security team for internal use. If the account was an optional thing to get those additional features, that would be much easier to push for within a company than when the account is required to even use the tool, and when the value of the features provided by the account aren't overwhelmingly worth it. It takes a lot to get past that hurdle.

Again, I am a big fan of the app, I talked it up quite a bit and even shared Loom videos with colleagues trying to show why I loved it so much. That may have worked if those features and the account were optional, but it being a requirement raises just too many red flags for a terminal app with security-minded folks (understandably).

[freitagdavid]

Gonna have to chime in as well with a big nope to creating an account. There is absolutely no reason you should need even a network connection, much less an account to run a terminal.

[SneWs]

Yeah, echo chamber by now, but watched a video, wanted to give it a go, but it's a no no to do any login or cloud crap in a terminal.

[jkmacc-LANL]

Please make login and telemetry optional, or I won't use it.

[allenicp]

This is a hard no for me also. I heard about Warp from a linux podcast and was excited to see what it was about but as soon as the log in screen popped up I immediately backed away. Whatever reason you have for requiring this for a terminal is just ridiculous. As many have stated if I were able to opt into some sort of telemetry that would require an account then sure if its optional with some unlocked benefits maybe. But it seems this is a wall you have built to keep out most developers.

[Mte90]

Tried today as there is the linux version. Requires the login, someone found a way to avoid the login? If works offline after the login it means that will check files as example and the connectivity maybe it is possible to do a workaround.

[d3-X-t3r]

Agreed with the others, requiring an account to use a terminal should be a completely optional thing. Regardless of any "political" stances, there's a very practical need - which is a scenario where the login/signup button doesn't work, or there's no connectivity to the Warp server.

Like right now, there's a bug where the "sign up" button doesn't work, so Warp is completely unusable for me. But even if that bug didn't exist, there might be a scenario in the future where the website/connectivity isn't working for whatever reason (maybe the site is down, or there's a network/proxy/firewall issue somewhere etc) - and this shouldn't be a reason to hold a terminal app hostage. A terminal isn't just some fancy tool, for many of us it's the primary way of interacting with a computer, and needing an account just to launch the terminal is pretty short-sighted, IMHO.

[ThatOneCalculator]

I don't know what politics has to even do with this -- I should never have to sign in to use anything that doesn't have gated content, let alone something as essential to my operating system as a terminal emulator. I could maybe see being able to link an account to do things like use online AI features, sync up sessions, etc as an added bonus, but something like that should never be a requirement.

[adebaumann]

Looks interesting - but is not coming near my system (and is banned on company systems) until use without login is possible and telemetry is strictly opt-in.

[ThatOneCalculator]

Thankfully, you can get most of Warp's functionalities with FOSS command-line programs and ZSH plugins on a sensible terminal emulator like Alacritty or Foot :)

• AI completions: shell-chatgpt or zsh-codex
• Menuing and file-picking: fzf
• Auto-suggestions: zsh-autosuggestions
• Shell completions: zsh-autcompletions
• Easy history navigation: history-substring-search
• Clipboard management: clipboard
• Many more cool plugins, frameworks, and utilities: https://github.com/unixorn/awesome-zsh-plugins?tab=readme-ov-file#plugins

[avinal]

Warp for Linux Launched -> Installed -> Saw signup page -> Uninstalled

[olafurw]

I was recommended this since it launched for Linux and like many others saw the login window and just uninstalled.

I'm going to try to give you some feedback.

Because a login to use a terminal product is absolutely bananas. You want people to use it but to get people to go over the login hurdle then the product needs to be absolutely life changing.

Make the login optional, perhaps to use certain bonus features or something. Do something to allow people to try it because you are losing so many users at this crucial initial step, especially now when you have all of these people interested.

[teamcons]

Cannot use it without login. We do not want our terminal to be connected to internet, nor any of the online features, nor subject to AI, nor have somewhere an account for what is essentially an administration tool for us.

I do not see why being the product would be a requirement for your product.

[daemon-byte]

It looked like an interesting shell but as said by others I don't want a closed source cloud based shell so hard pass.

[dannyneira]

Adding this Blog post from Warp's CEO here for extra context on why we chose to add login and why Warp isn't open source (yet).

https://www.warp.dev/blog/open-source-and-login-for-warp

[SneWs]

Adding this Blog post from Warp's CEO here for extra context on why we chose to add login and why Warp isn't open source (yet).

https://www.warp.dev/blog/open-source-and-login-for-warp

The basic rationale is the same as in other cloud based apps: login enables a consistent experience wherever a developer accesses the app so you don’t waste time setting things up over and over and all your work is available wherever you are

This is a really bad argument. I use terminals all day long on multiple machines and they are all in sync. dot files isn't magic and don't require a login, simple as that.

[ThatOneCalculator]

"Be happy and own nothing"

[utkarshgupta137]

For example, I recently had a negative experience with this “opt-in login” in VSCode. I moved from New Mexico to New York, switching computers. When I got to NYC and started using VSCode again nothing worked the way I expected (none of my settings were right, I didn’t have Copilot anymore) because I had neglected to log in in both places. It was annoying and I felt like it could have been solved by having a one-time login and using the cloud to keep my experience consistent.

I think it is clear that Warp is designed for beginners & occasional shell users & not for experienced/power users like myself, who would take the time to setup basic functionality like syncing history or backing up settings etc. It seems like most of the "features" on offer require online connectivity & most people who just want an offline terminal would be better off with Alacritty or WezTerm or Kitty anyway. I think it is probably better for them to just admit it & actually boast about it (like Terminal for noobs), rather than pretending that it is too difficult to sync stuff with delayed login or that closed source terminal would be acceptable to any serious person.

[allenicp]

Adding this Blog post from Warp's CEO here for extra context on why we chose to add login and why Warp isn't open source (yet).

https://www.warp.dev/blog/open-source-and-login-for-warp

Allow me to quote Illidan Stormrage, "I've traded my freedom for power once before".

Everybody promises to protect user data and not sell ads until they don’t. Maybe Warp really is committed to this, but virtually every company reverses course once profits come into play. ‘Don’t be evil’ used to be Google’s motto after all.

I am not an open source purist, I use proprietary software when needed, but there is one place I am not willing to compromise and that is my terminal where I do virtually all my work.

[ThatOneCalculator]

I think it is clear that Warp is designed for beginners & occasional shell users

Even better: Warp is trying to keep people with no terminal knowledge that way, so that they're stuck in an infinite loop of needing guardrails in order to do anything and everything

[daemon-byte]

For example, I recently had a negative experience with this “opt-in login” in VSCode. I moved from New Mexico to New York, switching computers. When I got to NYC and started using VSCode again nothing worked the way I expected (none of my settings were right, I didn’t have Copilot anymore) because I had neglected to log in in both places. It was annoying and I felt like it could have been solved by having a one-time login and using the cloud to keep my experience consistent.

I think it is clear that Warp is designed for beginners & occasional shell users & not for experienced/power users like myself, who would take the time to setup basic functionality like syncing history or backing up settings etc. It seems like most of the "features" on offer require online connectivity & most people who just want an offline terminal would be better off with Alacritty or WezTerm or Kitty anyway. I think it is probably better for them to just admit it & actually boast about it (like Terminal for noobs), rather than pretending that it is too difficult to sync stuff with delayed login or that closed source terminal would be acceptable to any serious person.

Very optimistic take. In my experience shells are the domain of power users. The casuals will use guis because it's quicker and easier. This seems much more sinister and why I'm not going into this trap. They want it linked to an online account so they can track you, grab your data and turn off your shell when you're not paying them. And the nonsense about we will maybe kind think about open sourcing? No that's simply because they know nobody is touching a proprietary shell by a for profit private company

[utkarshgupta137]

I think it is clear that Warp is designed for beginners & occasional shell users

Even better: Warp is trying to keep people with no terminal knowledge that way, so that they're stuck in an infinite loop of needing guardrails in order to do anything and everything

I disagree with that characterization. I think it is better that a tool like Warp exists which can enable more people to be productive with terminal instead of being afraid of it. These are probably the people who've never heard of anything other than VSCode & Jupyter servers, but are interested in trying something better, however marginal it is. Eventually, some of them would move to a real terminal & start configuring things for themselves. That is why I suggested they should market it as terminal for noobs & not as a better terminal.

[daemon-byte]

Adding this Blog post from Warp's CEO here for extra context on why we chose to add login and why Warp isn't open source (yet).

https://www.warp.dev/blog/open-source-and-login-for-warp

If you think that nonsense is going to help you're as clueless as your ceo. The fact that's suppose to answer the concerns clearly shows you lot have no clue about the real concerns. The issue isn't that logging in requires effort. It's that the terminal is connected to the cloud. Only a moron would connect their terminal, and by extension all the highly sensitive things done on it, to a cloud. Worse a cloud from an unknown startup using closed source code. Assuming this even gets to survive that long I will be laugh smugly at those fools who fell for it and find their ssh keys leaked or their terminal pay walled

[foolishprogrammer]

I install warp, met with login, then uninstall. On daily basis, unless I work in big project, I have no need for the Teams and drive. I don't have a irl friend that i consider as close friend that also nerding out on terminal at the same time, so I don't think I will ever refer someone else to use the same terminal that I use. I also found out that most Social Media is piss hole that i only there to laugh at people melting down on ridiculous things or just a place to me to say superficial things, so I have no need to share what in my terminal to the world. I prefer to avoid using AI Assistance as much as possible. I prefer to do my config in dotfile and i can easily sync it on my git account and secure it ssh-key. I believe I am one of the member of people that stereotypical programmer or usually works on terminal. I don't need the "cooler feature". I want to be able to use a terminal, do what I want, then done. I want to be able to use it when at work, when on road to meet client, on my favorite small coffee shop at the end of the alley with no wifi and poor mobile connection and work while having coffee and snacks. I like the UI, and currently looking another rust based terminal. I was hoping warp could be another collection of terminal that I have tried and have better understanding than most new user. but now, I don't even able to use it..... Nah....

[jimcornmell]

+1 currently cannot use for work due to corporate policy and this sign in feature, so still using kitty

[ThatOneCalculator]

Personally I'd recommend Foot or Alacritty over Kitty, unless you need ligature support

[yvbeek]

My 50 cents:

Requiring users to login before being able to use the terminal is going to be a big deal-breaker for a lot of people and it will likely hurt your ability to grow your user base. The arguments presented in the blog post are weak in my opinion. For developers there will be a far greater concern for privacy / security. I get the feeling that the real reason behind this is monetization. If people aren't signed in, it makes it harder for you to target them with online services / subscriptions. If this is the real reason, just be open about it, businesses are expected to make money, transparency is key.

You could solve this by creating a Warp Lite client that doesn't require you to sign-in and doesn't offer the AI features. It would also make it easier to make that client open-source. You will reach a lot more people with this approach, including plenty of enterprise users that will consider the paid version.

[puterhimself]

late to the party, but I absolutely hate login to a damn terminal and am never doing that. what were they thinking?, and of course there is a github issue for this, guess I'll try alacritty or foot. also I am fine it being closed source if they remove the login to use

[ThatOneCalculator]

I think what needs to be said has been said. At this point, I have zero faith that the Warp team will address any of these issues seriously.

[foolishprogrammer]

Requiring users to login before being able to use the terminal is going to be a big deal-breaker for a lot of people and it will likely hurt your ability to grow your user base. The arguments presented in the blog post are weak in my opinion.

Not only weak, but also kinda contradicting. On the Login part, he argue that Login is a low cost thing and should not be a problem, but when it comes to the Delay Login part, it becomes a deal breaker. What is the difference? One I have to login first and have it all config sync up from the get go, the other is using it with default config for 1-2 minutes, then login and wait another minute to have the config sync up. So, adding 1-3 minutes annoyance is enough to turn something that is low cost and no problem into a chaos in workflow.

[eduardomcv]

This is really disappointing. I was looking forward to warp for linux, but requiring a sign up to use a terminal is ridiculous. Won't touch it again until this is resolved.

[zambony]

Got the notification it was available for Linux, downloaded it, and almost immediately uninstalled it. Tried to sign up using my email, not github, and it doesn't even make an account, it just emails you a token/sign in link every time you want to sign in. I wanted to use it for work, but without linking anything to my work accounts, and I'm certainly not going to sign in to a personal account on a work device, especially for a terminal.

Uninstalled.

[kstallard]

Uninstalled, the required login is just a bit creepy.

[jabcross]

Quite ironic, considering the CEO was originally in charge of the team responsible for making Google Sheets work offline.

[Pierll]

I was happy to try out this new software but I uninstalled it immediately upon seeing the login screen, no sane terminal emulator should EVER require a login screen wtf is this.

[jgottfried]

"Private by default" — requires a login. What a laugh. No thanks.

[coderunway]

Same here.

1. Downloaded and Installed.
2. Started the app and when it forced a 'login' to usage.
3. Just deleted the app.
4. Thanks !

[CyrilDevOps]

Looked at a demo, seems to be nice, but sadly login/telemetry/ai/sharing is a big no no in a work environment. The security and privacy aspect, and office rules make it no usable for me. Working on sensitive project/network/cloud, or env without even internet access.

But like all the peoples in this long list, I can't go forward with warp as it is, don't want to have our code, ssh keys, cloud keys, ... somehow poping up in the dark side of the web.

Please make a version that has no login/sharing/telemetry/ai stuff, those can be enable later through plugins from people who want that and understand the risk.

You may be 'we don't do evil', you seems to have a nice product, and I don't mind to pay for it (already did for another terminal app) when all those login/sharing/telemetry/ai stuff non-sense it remove, this is the only way you can have adoption and traction from people working in dev/ops/devops/security ...

[Erik262]

Well, Veni, vidi login, deleted

[jimcornmell]

Seems nice at first glance, too many features missing though and the login is a deal killer for my company, uninstalled. I'll keep an eye on it though, if the features I need get implemented and the login requirement goes away (i.e. only needed for the AI feature, which is optional then I'll have another look). Although looking at how long some of the features I need have been setting in the backlog I won't hold my breath.

I think they need to understand for "seasoned developers" (i.e. grumpy old gits like me), pretty UI/gimmicky features are not as important as the basics and real functionality.

Also I suspect their architecture might be flawed. I've seen a few change log notes where they mention "Added completion support for ....", this suggests if your command (or own personal command completion) are not on their road-map, you will NEVER get completion. The whole point of CLI and Linux is power to configure, and I'm damned if I'm having two sets of completion scripts! Like I said seems a fundamental flaw, hope I'm wrong.

[n00bsys0p]

Entirely absurd to require login for a terminal. I certainly won't be using it until they remove that requirement.

[paveldvorak5]

There's no reason to sign up if I don't need the team features. I really don't want to have a online terminal when working with sensitive data. You can separate the online features to an other app/command that will be called on demand.