OpenAI: Release of Codex and acquisition of Windsurf

OpenAI released Codex - a terminal-based AI programming agent that most people can't use, even if you have mastered Cursor/Windsurf.

The acquisition of Windsurf is said to be a rumor, but it cannot be said that OpenAI does not want to do it. TA wants to do it very much, but it also needs to save face.

OpenAI is very contradictory. It is a creator of value, but the value is taken away by others - how depressing.

AI Coding is very important, and even the most certain path to AGI. On this path, the most certain fruit has been reaped by Cursor/Windsurf.

These two are indeed good products, perfectly matching the relationship between AI+people+context. The product experience is very good, and many non-programmers can also use them very well.

OpenAI can't sit still, what to do? If they do it themselves, they will lose face, after all, they are the big brother. So they refer to another big brother - Claude, I will make a Claude code (codex) - much better than your cursor/windsurf, a complete agent, occupying the position, and not losing the status of the big brother.

But how effective is it? Not very good. See here for details:

• •  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43708025

• •  https://a2aprotocol.ai/blog/openai-codex-cli

This result is due to several factors:

• • The model’s capabilities are not yet enough to kill all enemies

• • Mismatch between product interaction and user

At this time, who is Codex CLI for? Programmers? Not at all. Currently, the most suitable and effective one is still Cursor. Programmers must use it, even cursor/windsurf needs to be used with caution.

Is it for non-programmers? The threshold for interaction is too high. I understand that cursor is another professional word, but how does the terminal understand it? How does npm  understand it? How can I execute the following commands that I don't know what they mean?

npm i -g @openai/codex

For non-programmers, what's this?

So, there is no advantage over Claude Code, and no user group has been found. What should I do?

I have a plan: put the codex into a virtual machine, connect a chat interface to the front end, and let non-programmer users play around and spread the word. This is also the way to get the most benefits as the model capabilities improve.

But, isn't this Manus?