Windsurf
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RIP Windsurf

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, Prev. Windsurf CEO now President, New Enterprise at Cognition/Devin (who ):

Today we are saying goodbye to Windsurf

…and we are transforming it to Devin Desktop

Windsurf has been an absolutely amazing experience for me and the team. Though it has been rocky at times, we have seen every phase of AI coding and we want to keep embracing where things are going. That means we need to once again reorient ourselves towards a more focused goal and remove the Windsurf branding.

Believe it or not, the Windsurf brand has been around less than a year and a half, and before that, the previous name Codeium was only around a similar timeframe as well. I’ve actually had to change my email every year all the way to the eventual acquisition to Cognition. In AI, most products only have a 1 year lifespan before you need to drastically change it to the next.

Devin now encompasses all our form factors, whether it’s the cloud agent, the agent command center (with IDE), CLI, review, or our other products. This way we can really focus our efforts around one name. We are doubling down on our neutrality and making Devin Desktop compatible with other agents via ACP. We may be the only “Switzerland” of AI left and we embrace this role.

As for me, I’ll be transitioning from CEO of Windsurf to Cognition’s President of New Enterprise, helping open new regions and verticals, accelerating velocity, and filling in gaps as usual.

The story of Windsurf doesn’t end here, it continues on as part of Devin’s journey.

I still rock Windsurf and love it, despite all the handwringing about pricing.

Sad day.

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"I’ve actually had to change my email every year all the way to the eventual acquisition to Cognition. In AI, most products only have a 1 year lifespan before you need to drastically change it to the next."

This is scary 😅

The 1-year product lifespan insight is the realest thing said about AI right now. Most people are still trying to build moats in a market where the terrain changes every quarter. The Switzerland play — agent-neutral, ACP-compatible — is actually a defensible position precisely because everyone else is trying to lock in. Congrats on the evolution and the new role. The story doesn't end, it compounds.

OMG, I’m literally the last person to find out about this. 😂 It’s been a while since I last used Windsurf, but I kept it installed and let it update automatically. This morning I noticed a brand-new icon in my app menu, and for a second I genuinely thought someone had been using my laptop.

P.S. "Windsurf" is still a much cooler name than "Devin."

Interestingly the Devin name has survived more than two years!

The 1-year lifespan observation is the most honest thing said about building in AI right now. Most of us are naming products we’ll rename, building moats that will shift, and calling it a strategy. The Switzerland play is smart precisely because it doesn’t bet on which model or agent wins - it bets on the fact that the race continues. That’s a rare read!

I’m skeptical about the 'neutral' part. In a vertical this consolidated, 'neutral' usually just means 'waiting for the right acquisition offer.' It’s a smart exit strategy, but it’s definitely the end of the experimental phase for pure-play IDE agents."

Dur pour l’équipe Windsurf. Mais ça prouve un truc : les IDE AI "tout-en-un" sont trop chers à défendre face à Devin + $1B. Moi sur j’ai fait le choix inverse : pas d’IA qui code à ta place. Juste Supabase + Next.js pour que les créateurs gardent le contrôle. Windsurf était génial, mais Devin Desktop = focus. Focus > features. Vous migratez sur quoi vous ?

Markets are going crazy

Same here. Love Windsurf.

Let's see what it will become

RIP Windsurf, but what a journey.

Building products in AI is moving at an incredible pace, and it takes courage to evolve when the market changes. The Windsurf team created something that helped thousands of developers and pushed AI coding forward.

Brands may change, but great ideas, great teams, and great technology continue to evolve. Wishing the team success as they begin the next chapter with Devin.