Startups should not use React
medium.com
Startups should not use React
1–10 of 176 posts
Re: Startups should not use React
#2I've been saying this for months. Don't use React!
Re: Startups should not use React
#3Can someone please share what patents cover react?
Because if they're revoking patents that don't cover react then there should be no problem to continue using react right?
Re: Startups should not use React
#4Can someone please share what patents cover react? Because if they're revoking patents that don't cover react then there should be no problem to continue using react right?
Exactly! And if the day came where this because an issue, for 1/10th the cost of actually retaining a lawyer and reasonably going after Facebook for a patent, you could rewrite your app in something else.
Re: Startups should not use React
#5Can someone please share what patents cover react? Because if they're revoking patents that don't cover react then there should be no problem to continue using react right?
If I understand that license correctly, it is not 'patents that cover react', it is 'any facebook patent, present or future'. Also as explained in the article, it is also about my patents if I have any, in case facebook tries violating them. Far wider than 'react patents'.
Re: Startups should not use React
#6Can someone please share what patents cover react? Because if they're revoking patents that don't cover react then there should be no problem to continue using react right?
The problem is if you ever found facebook infringing on one of your patents, you could not sue them -- your react patent grant would be rescinded.
This is not a behavior of free software.
Re: Startups should not use React
#7> If all giants agreed to open source under the “BSD + patents” scheme, cross-adoption would grind to a halt. Why? If Google released Project X under “BSD + Patents”, and Amazon really liked it, rather than adopting it and losing their right to ever sue Google for patents, they would go off and build it on their own.
This seems like a reasonable argument, but it doesn't seem to have deterred several big name companies from using React. Airbnb, netflix, and dropbox for example.
Re: Startups should not use React
#8Easy workaround: Install Preact. No code changes required, at least not for me last year.
Re: Startups should not use React
#9It's worth noting this "you can't sue us for violating your patents if you use our non-free open source software" is working as designed.
Facebook claims that if every company adopted a React-like license, that software patents as we know it would basically die. It's worth noting that both Google and Facebook's patent lawyers are generally of the opinion that software patents are net bad, but differ in their opinions of how to express that intent without exposing their companies to additional risk from patent trolls.
If you want to be acquired, then this is the opposite of what you want. You file patents for every part of the product you can; you audit your dependencies to avoid copyleft (AGPL and GPL) and React-like licenses, so your software can be folded into a 100% closed source product or shut down or whatever your acquirer wants.
If you run a start-up, and you're worried about the React license, you should be speaking to your own legal counsel about the best way forward.
Re: Startups should not use React
#10Are companies getting asked about React in M&A due diligence or has any lawyer recommended this, because otherwise this post is pure clickbait.