I was using next.js when they switched from the pages router to app router. I ended up just abandoning the project, the app router experience was that bad, and haven't really been keen on picking up next.js since then. It's always seemed clear that Vercel has been, at best, OSS- ish . Trying to play both sides of claiming to be open source but also (somewhat sneakily) building a walled garden to lock users into their…
You should know this before choosing Next.js
121–130 of 147 posts
Re: You should know this before choosing Next.js
#122I warn everyone away from next.js. Unsurprisingly V0 has a real shot at massively increasing its adoption because people don’t know any better. What are some salient counter points for choosing next.js? I see a lot of new devs not want to have to think about deployment and management of systems so that is one aspect. If you only know react I guess getting SSR without having to learn something else is a win at the cos…
>What are some salient counter points for choosing next.js? ... If you only know react I guess getting SSR without having to learn something else is a win at the cost of complexity in your codebase. Well there are alternatives to Next.js that handle SSR. Remix for example. That's a popular one. For a smaller project I wouldnt be afraid of rolling your own with Vite. It's pretty simple. And for any developer I'd reall…
Re: You should know this before choosing Next.js
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I see a lot of new devs not want to have to think about deployment and management of systems so that is one aspect. Maybe people should rediscover the joys of just FTPing files on a cheap host. It's not like most project will have problems running on those hosts. And if it is the case scaling is one bare metal server + nginx away.
> Maybe people should rediscover the joys of just FTPing files on a cheap host. Trouble is that the reason we got away from that model because applications started to become so bloated by frameworks that it took ages to see them start up, thereby necessitating a bunch of hacks to see them respond in a reasonable amount of time, with that eventually evolving into services like Vercel that try to hide the hacks behind…
Unfortunately, Next.js dials back static export support with every major release, but it is still usable to create a 100% SPA with static export.
Re: You should know this before choosing Next.js
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, this is shocking to me. I’m a backend developer who occasionally tinkers with frontend. I gave nextjs a spin and couldn’t believe the reload times on a new project. For folks who use this every day, how/why is this acceptable?
It's acceptable for me because I (and others on my team) do not have to way 6-7 seconds almost ever, it is nearly instant. On odd occasion changes can take a long time to show up, ~5 seconds, but it seems restarting the server fixes it, so not sure what that is about.
I had the same experience of slow refreshes on the NextJS project I worked on (running locally) and the other seasoned NextJS developers didn't think it was unusual.
Re: You should know this before choosing Next.js
#125I was always highly sceptical of vercel even though or maybe also because i really love the design and public appeal they are going for. But something about everything they do and talk about gives me the creeps, something is telling me that they are not genuine and keeping something. Its maybe the same feeling when you talk to a really pleasant to talk to person who you just know is a psychopath making the heir on yo…
I find the problem is that Vercel has great product vision, but is weak in the engineering department, so encounters end up in some kind of uncanny valley.
Re: You should know this before choosing Next.js
#126I was using next.js when they switched from the pages router to app router. I ended up just abandoning the project, the app router experience was that bad, and haven't really been keen on picking up next.js since then. It's always seemed clear that Vercel has been, at best, OSS- ish . Trying to play both sides of claiming to be open source but also (somewhat sneakily) building a walled garden to lock users into their…
If you are using next.js, you are not really introducing a library/framework as a dependency - you have technically introduced a consultancy corporation as a dependency in your product.
Re: You should know this before choosing Next.js
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Maybe people should rediscover the joys of just FTPing files on a cheap host. Trouble is that the reason we got away from that model because applications started to become so bloated by frameworks that it took ages to see them start up, thereby necessitating a bunch of hacks to see them respond in a reasonable amount of time, with that eventually evolving into services like Vercel that try to hide the hacks behind…
Actually, I do exactly that and Next.js does have support for static exports . I write the SPA in React/TypeScript/Next.js and export to static html+js+css+assets. Those I can simply sftp to a target static webhost. All the logic is in a REST backend that is written in .NET/C#. Unfortunately, Next.js dials back static export support with every major release, but it is still usable to create a 100% SPA with static exp…
Wasn't it even originally created to produce static websites?
But, man, at that point you're bringing a bulldozer (with a super uncomfortable operator's station!) to drive a nail.
Re: You should know this before choosing Next.js
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find the problem is that Vercel has great product vision, but is weak in the engineering department, so encounters end up in some kind of uncanny valley.
I think it’s literally the other way around. The CTOs previous role was in charge of Google’s search experience.
Aside from the "appeal to authority", what suggests to you that they are strong in engineering?
> The CTOs previous role was in charge of Google’s search experience.
Google search also having decent product vision, but poor engineering execution, sounds about right. I don't know how many times I've heard people say they want to use Google search but have to resort to silly hacks, like adding "site:reddit.com", just to get anything useful out of it.
But, to be fair, he in particular only worked on "Google Search on Desktop" which probably isn't the search results department. The one text input box and two buttons did stay centered. I suppose some do say that is the hardest problem in engineering, but I'm pretty sure they are joking.
Re: You should know this before choosing Next.js
#129I warn everyone away from next.js. Unsurprisingly V0 has a real shot at massively increasing its adoption because people don’t know any better. What are some salient counter points for choosing next.js? I see a lot of new devs not want to have to think about deployment and management of systems so that is one aspect. If you only know react I guess getting SSR without having to learn something else is a win at the cos…
> I see a lot of new devs not want to have to think about deployment and management of systems so that is one aspect. Maybe people should rediscover the joys of just FTPing files on a cheap host. It's not like most project will have problems running on those hosts. And if it is the case scaling is one bare metal server + nginx away.
Re: You should know this before choosing Next.js
#130I was using next.js when they switched from the pages router to app router. I ended up just abandoning the project, the app router experience was that bad, and haven't really been keen on picking up next.js since then. It's always seemed clear that Vercel has been, at best, OSS- ish . Trying to play both sides of claiming to be open source but also (somewhat sneakily) building a walled garden to lock users into their…
To this day I still use pages only. Long term or for a new project I guess I'll have to look into astro or vite/express