Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#1

Post by friendlydog » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 4:41 PM UTC

What happens to React if Meta disappears? Will it limp along or is it disconnected enough to continue improving without Facebook Meta?

Re: Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#2

Post by tiernano » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 4:45 PM UTC

I don't think "Meta" will die, but "Facebook" might... Meta being the parent company, Facebook being a sub company... As long as Meta keeps something running (I am going to guess that Facebook Infrastructure might be spun out and used as a separate entity) they may have other stuff as a post Facebook project... This whole "Metaverse" thing is one of those that might end up replacing Facebook... then again, both could die and something else takes over... [Edit] Doesn't directly answer your question... but if internal dev still need React, they will keep it around...

Re: Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#3

Post by emteycz » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

React is used at so many of the F500 that it has no real danger of being abandoned by developers.

Re: Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#4

Post by mikece » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

In the event that Meta were to dissolve, liquidate their assets, and return the money to the shareholders, I suspect we would quickly see the establishment of the React Foundation or something akin to that under the mantle of some other open source software foundation.

Either that or it will be forgotten like KnockoutJS was (and for the same reasons).

Re: Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#5

Post by jstx1 » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

tiernano wrote: post #2

I don't think "Meta" will die, but "Facebook" might... Meta being the parent company, Facebook being a sub company... As long as Meta keeps something running (I am going to guess that Facebook Infrastructure might be spun out and used as a separate entity) they may have other stuff as a post Facebook project... This whole "Metaverse" thing is one of those that might end up replacing Facebook... then again, both could…

Facebook still has billions of users. It's a very very long way from losing users for the first time or losing stock value to dying altogether.

Re: Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#6

Post by skinnymuch » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

In the event something insane like that happens in this decade, then any thing could happen. No way to say any thing.

Re: Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#7

Post by azangru » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 5:04 PM UTC

React is the jQuery of the modern web. It's open-source; it's very popular; it won't die immediately if Meta were to fall; but maybe we will one day grow out of it.

Re: Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#8

Post by jonathan-adly » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 5:05 PM UTC

Meta's death (if it happened), will be a slow and a long one. Like Oracle or IBM (although IBM is not completely dead). Given the JS ecosystem cycle, React will be replaced by something better much sooner.

Re: Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#9

Post by williamstein » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 5:07 PM UTC

Vercel/nextjs.org is a nontrivial company whose business fundamentally depends on supporting the React ecosystem.

Re: Ask HN: If Meta dies will React follow?

#10

Post by tablespoon » Fri, Feb 04, 2022, 5:07 PM UTC

jonathan-adly wrote: post #8

Meta's death (if it happened), will be a slow and a long one. Like Oracle or IBM (although IBM is not completely dead). Given the JS ecosystem cycle, React will be replaced by something better much sooner.

> Meta's death (if it happened), will be a slow and a long one.

Exactly, there's no way Meta will suddenly disappear and go poof, barring some kind of extreme government action or bizarre corpora-cidal action by its controlling shareholder Mark Zuckerberg.