Ask HN: What will happen to React if we #deleteFacebook?
39 comments
I thought Facebook going down was way overblown too, so i decided to ask my friends, many are just there to buy clothes, social sharing or reading up shared news. They are normal, everyday users, who are not into tech at all. There answer were along the line;
1. What is Cambridge Analytics's?
2. I dont know what happen to facebook recently.
3. My data is being collected? So?
4. Oh
5. Can I still buy and shop on Facebook?
6. Why would I delete facebook?
I think it is clear, apart from those of use who really cared about tech, or those live in US felt being used as tools in politics, many around the world dont give a damn.
I am tempted to buy into Facebook stock as well ( may be for it to lower a little more ), while none of the post 2000 born teenagers i knew has a Facebook account, they knew IG. Really IG is the new Facebook. Whatsapp is still growing.
1. What is Cambridge Analytics's?
2. I dont know what happen to facebook recently.
3. My data is being collected? So?
4. Oh
5. Can I still buy and shop on Facebook?
6. Why would I delete facebook?
I think it is clear, apart from those of use who really cared about tech, or those live in US felt being used as tools in politics, many around the world dont give a damn.
I am tempted to buy into Facebook stock as well ( may be for it to lower a little more ), while none of the post 2000 born teenagers i knew has a Facebook account, they knew IG. Really IG is the new Facebook. Whatsapp is still growing.
> My data is being collected? So?
I have had this exact same response from so many of my friends. I find myself hard to explain in a manner that is non-technical. Is there a nice explanation that I can say when someone tells this to me next time ?
I have had this exact same response from so many of my friends. I find myself hard to explain in a manner that is non-technical. Is there a nice explanation that I can say when someone tells this to me next time ?
What's the explanation if you can be as technical as you want?
If we see #deletefacebook as a trend. It takes time to propagate. Once it become "uncool" to be on facebook, it ll be gone for good..
If Facebook lose its young users, it is only a matter of time before the older people follow where ever the young is going..
If Facebook lose its young users, it is only a matter of time before the older people follow where ever the young is going..
Is this sarcasm?
If even 1% of all FB accounts were deleted, I would be amazed and call it a staggeringly successful campaign.
Oddly the way Wall Street works, Facebook's stock would probably drop 25% if that happened.
In my eyes the OP seems almost like pity.
> VW
NSA seems topical regarding privacy. They should have a thing or two to say about security by obscurity (en lieu privacy) and open source.
CamAn is a strawman, not fake news, but only because it's not really news.
> VW
NSA seems topical regarding privacy. They should have a thing or two to say about security by obscurity (en lieu privacy) and open source.
CamAn is a strawman, not fake news, but only because it's not really news.
Facebook itself won't be meaningfully "deleted" for at least five years. It simply has too much money: even if its main product went kaput tomorrow (which it won't), it would find some other way to stay alive. That would almost certainly be via an acquisition spree, in which it would go to great lengths to tie its targets' platforms into facebook.com, which is based on React (AFAIK). So the answer is: nothing.
That said, what if, as a thought experiment, Facebook imploded tomorrow? It reminds me of the "what if the Sun disappeared" scenario -- it's not that it's _unlikely_; it's that it would require new physics to even get you there. So speculation is somewhat idle. That said, here's what I think would happen:
1) The core contributors would be snapped up by some open source-adjacent organization, like Mozilla, and given free reign to work on React in the majority of their time.
2) Some sort of new, independent governance would be formed. IME, new web projects seem to be more ad-hoc in this respect than, say, GNU brethren.
3) Development velocity would undoubtedly slow down. This happens naturally as projects mature, though, so let's not mourn the inevitable process of nature.
4) Some idealistic fork will pick up a bit of steam, and the sister projects will steal from each other liberally. Like bacteria, politicians (zing), or anything else that competes.
5) Something else will rise to take React's place.
But again, it doesn't matter, because Facebook won't disappear on a time scale that matters relative to the velocity of JS development.
That said, what if, as a thought experiment, Facebook imploded tomorrow? It reminds me of the "what if the Sun disappeared" scenario -- it's not that it's _unlikely_; it's that it would require new physics to even get you there. So speculation is somewhat idle. That said, here's what I think would happen:
1) The core contributors would be snapped up by some open source-adjacent organization, like Mozilla, and given free reign to work on React in the majority of their time.
2) Some sort of new, independent governance would be formed. IME, new web projects seem to be more ad-hoc in this respect than, say, GNU brethren.
3) Development velocity would undoubtedly slow down. This happens naturally as projects mature, though, so let's not mourn the inevitable process of nature.
4) Some idealistic fork will pick up a bit of steam, and the sister projects will steal from each other liberally. Like bacteria, politicians (zing), or anything else that competes.
5) Something else will rise to take React's place.
But again, it doesn't matter, because Facebook won't disappear on a time scale that matters relative to the velocity of JS development.
Wait 3 months and a new javascript framework will be en vogue.
As far as UI frameworks go, JS fatigue has slowed down dramatically in the past couple years.
What? I'm 24 and I already feel like I'm outdated in web dev, because:
* Vue appeared in the last couple of years (At least I learned that)
* Everyone uses React and I never wanted to use it because facebook.
* npm is not cool now it's yarn
* var is not cool now it's let
* Babel is in every new project now, all your browser supporting mind is useless now.
* Vue alone is not cool, now you have to use vue-x
* Bootstrap is not cool, now it's materialize/bulma/whatever
Everything is changing all the time. 1 year after you typed something, it is outdated or vulnerable because of some dependency.
* Vue appeared in the last couple of years (At least I learned that)
* Everyone uses React and I never wanted to use it because facebook.
* npm is not cool now it's yarn
* var is not cool now it's let
* Babel is in every new project now, all your browser supporting mind is useless now.
* Vue alone is not cool, now you have to use vue-x
* Bootstrap is not cool, now it's materialize/bulma/whatever
Everything is changing all the time. 1 year after you typed something, it is outdated or vulnerable because of some dependency.
Vue arrived in 2013 I believe, but it has gotten more popular in the past year. React's a good framework regardless of Facebook's flaws as a company. NPM's functionality has caught up with Yarn and NPM 5+ is pretty solid overall. The competition from Yarn was good for NPM and helped improve its design. But in terms of UI frameworks, we seem to have peaked. New frameworks are coming out, to be sure...but it seems like devs are pretty happy with React/Vue or React clones at this point.
Vue was originally released in 2014 according to Wikipedia, and as you say, it got popular in the past year or two. With this and all the stuff you mentioned, that's a lot of stuff happening in a small amount of time. That is not an environment to build a stable code base. Meanwhile, python changed one function in 7 years and everyone is complaining (print now needs parenthesis).
Haha, you're forgetting the whole Python 2 vs 3 fiasco. But also, if you look back at JS back in 2012/2013, there were 6 or 7 popular UI frameworks (AngularJS, Knockout, JQuery, Ember, etc). It was churning very fast. React has been dominant for 3 years now and I don't see it slowing down.
I mentionned the print statement, which is honestly what was keeping most people from migrating to 3.
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React has been "en vogue" for more than 2 years now. Do you have some information than we don't?
Deeply agree: React will be dead (maybe not internally at fb, but to the rest of the world) long before facebook goes dead. Whether you consider it a trend or a point-in-time technology, it will be surpassed by something quickly enough.
It's MIT licensed and widely used. So we're only a fork away from a facebook-independent React...
Need for funding is a thing, but I'd presume AirBnB or Dropbox or any of the many others listed on https://github.com/facebook/react/wiki/Sites-Using-React would step up.
Good point. I wonder if too many of them would step up though and we'd have 4 different *-react forks all with significant mindshare, weakening the community by splintering it.
#deleteFacebook is not going anywhere. In 2 weeks, people will be outraged at something else and move on.
I second your opinion. React Native has come a long way but it has failed somehow to prove its worth. Well, Before anyone bombards me with the criticism I would want to clarify that I am talking about performance here (Specially on Android)
It's bad, like most web technologies [used to make rich interfaces].
But it works. Well enough for a lot of people to adopt it.
But it works. Well enough for a lot of people to adopt it.
I mean, Facebook is losing money right now, but I don't think they're going anywhere.
But, for the sake of argument, let's say everyone deletes their account and Facebook goes away. React is open source. The people from Facebook working on React would probably just get jobs with some other company that relies on React and continue working on React.
But, for the sake of argument, let's say everyone deletes their account and Facebook goes away. React is open source. The people from Facebook working on React would probably just get jobs with some other company that relies on React and continue working on React.
Facebook isn't losing money. They are one of the most profitable companies in the world. Changes in market cap != losing money.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/277229/facebooks-annual-...
They made nearly $16 billion in net profit last year.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/277229/facebooks-annual-...
They made nearly $16 billion in net profit last year.
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https://vimeo.com/260417482
Check out this talk from Artsy. Orta says that they'll continue supporting RN, even if Facebook drops it tomorrow. They won't push it forward, but Facebook dropping it is extremely unlikely.
Check out this talk from Artsy. Orta says that they'll continue supporting RN, even if Facebook drops it tomorrow. They won't push it forward, but Facebook dropping it is extremely unlikely.
It'd probably transition to something like a React Foundation governance model, still open source.
This is probably something that will happen anyway given enough time. So it would happen faster. Development would slow down for a while if Facebook pulls out engineering resources.
This is probably something that will happen anyway given enough time. So it would happen faster. Development would slow down for a while if Facebook pulls out engineering resources.
FB is not the only project where React is used, take Instagram for example (also owned by MZ and that's where React originated from in the first place, as far as I know). Moreover, I'm sure FB will live on for years to come.
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I hope we will start asking ourselves "do I even need React for this project?".
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But to address your underlying implication that Facebook is going down, as much as many of us would like to believe otherwise, this will blow over in a matter of weeks. Facebook will emerge out the other side stronger than ever. The outrage machine of the internet is working well lately, but it's still mostly toothless. Even potential regulator or court involvement is unlikely to result in more than a token slap on the wrist if history is any guide. People have too short a collective memory and attention span to produce long-lasting changes. Look at Volkswagon, stronger than ever after going through much harsher public outrage and regulatory action.
I'm tempted to buy Facebook stock, on the premise that people seem to be overeacting and that's always a potential for profit. I strongly dislike Facebook personally, and don't have a Facebook account.