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Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

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Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#11

It reads as if Flutter is getting scrapped as a Google project quite honestly. If true I can see the blowback being pretty severe on this one.

I've gone all-in on Flutter for mobile development, and have quite a lot invested in it. I'm sure quite a lot of other people have. If Google sunsets it, I'll be so pissed off. I'll never trust anything else coming from them again.

You and me both. I've spent the past few years rewriting a UWP app into Flutter, and really enjoy the experience. I desperately, desperately don't want to have to go back to web development. I hate the DOM so much.

Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#12
post #4

It seems like this is a response to Ian "Hixie" Hickson (co-founder and tech lead of Flutter) leaving Google (but not leaving Flutter). https://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1700627532&count=1

Serious question concerning how much of a bubble I am in: > Flutter is amazingly successful. It's already the leading mobile app development framework Is this true? Over iOS native, Android native, React Native, or any other hybrid frameworks? EDIT: numbers can tell different stories, but here's one at least against React Native (which I'm most interested in) in Flutter's favor: https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/02/21/…

"Percentage of Stack Overflow questions that month" is not a good measurement for a tool's popularity or a measure of its use.

Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#13
post #4

It seems like this is a response to Ian "Hixie" Hickson (co-founder and tech lead of Flutter) leaving Google (but not leaving Flutter). https://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1700627532&count=1

Serious question concerning how much of a bubble I am in: > Flutter is amazingly successful. It's already the leading mobile app development framework Is this true? Over iOS native, Android native, React Native, or any other hybrid frameworks? EDIT: numbers can tell different stories, but here's one at least against React Native (which I'm most interested in) in Flutter's favor: https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/02/21/…

In terms of numbers I don't know but I personally chose it from my apps and to me it's the best framework out there at the moment.

Compared to the native tech the advantages are easy, you have a single codebase and UI for all the platforms. The native UI apis are also moving faster than Flutter in my opinion which makes Flutter lower maintenance as well on this area.

Compared to React Native, it's younger but more stable in my opinion, I don't want to deal with the js package churn rate and its bad testing story. I come back 6 months after to my flutter projects and after 2 hours I've upgraded everything, good luck with that on the js side.

If you care about Linux, Flutter is also a better choice than React Native in this scenario. React Native Gtk target is abandoned and the only realistic solution is to use an Electron wrapper (well it's not that native anymore isn't it)

The only downside to me is the web target which isn't that great, if you just want to use the web target as an app demo though, it's good enough.

Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question concerning how much of a bubble I am in: > Flutter is amazingly successful. It's already the leading mobile app development framework Is this true? Over iOS native, Android native, React Native, or any other hybrid frameworks? EDIT: numbers can tell different stories, but here's one at least against React Native (which I'm most interested in) in Flutter's favor: https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/02/21/…

"Percentage of Stack Overflow questions that month" is not a good measurement for a tool's popularity or a measure of its use.

Very much agree.

I would say in jest that it might be inversely correlated with success, but you also wouldn't want to work with, say, brainfuck.

Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#15
post #4

It seems like this is a response to Ian "Hixie" Hickson (co-founder and tech lead of Flutter) leaving Google (but not leaving Flutter). https://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1700627532&count=1

If it is a response to that, you would have to assume that Hickson left because he pushed for or against something relating to working on Flutter. If Google wanted to place him elsewhere, for example, and he left Google because he figured he can bankroll his own work on Flutter and look elsewhere, that'd be in line with this line:

> I hope that Google finally realizes what treasured assets they have here before it's too late. The clock is ticking.

Lowering the amount they're investing in Flutter would definitely be something that would disappoint the ones who believe in it strongly in-house and taking away key people would not inspire confidence. Interestingly none of the tweets ever mention Hickson as being important, which doesn't exactly speak to the source of the complaints being Hickson leaving, but rather a much more general lowering of investment in Flutter.

Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#16

It reads as if Flutter is getting scrapped as a Google project quite honestly. If true I can see the blowback being pretty severe on this one.

I've gone all-in on Flutter for mobile development, and have quite a lot invested in it. I'm sure quite a lot of other people have. If Google sunsets it, I'll be so pissed off. I'll never trust anything else coming from them again.

I find it odd how someone can look at https://killedbygoogle.com/ and still choose to go all in on a new Google product.

Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#17
post #4

It seems like this is a response to Ian "Hixie" Hickson (co-founder and tech lead of Flutter) leaving Google (but not leaving Flutter). https://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1700627532&count=1

Serious question concerning how much of a bubble I am in: > Flutter is amazingly successful. It's already the leading mobile app development framework Is this true? Over iOS native, Android native, React Native, or any other hybrid frameworks? EDIT: numbers can tell different stories, but here's one at least against React Native (which I'm most interested in) in Flutter's favor: https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/02/21/…

I was also very surprised at that line and I was wondering if I was the one who was out of touch or the Google team were. I haven't really looked into mobile development for a few years so it could very well be the case, but it stood out to me as unlikely considering the relative impopularity of Dart and the (to my estimation) very low hype profile of Flutter where developers hang out.

But maybe they're right. I think it would be exceedingly hard to actually get real numbers on it anyway.

Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#18
Flutter has three major problems:

- Performance: Even on Desktop, animations have jank. Last I compiled samples on Mac, the problem was visibly there.

- UX: Text editing immediately feels alien. If Mac for example, you have a text field in a native app and on the side you have a flutter app with a text field, you can tell the difference between the "feel" when you type in each. This isn't necessarily limited to text fields alone.

- Web: surely is possible but you have to dumb down your application so much. You cannot use libraries from JS ecosystem so lot is left on the table. Imagine High Charts, d3.js and such. Say goodbye to them when you're on Flutter Web.

Lastly, from the tone of it, seems like Flutter is on the way to join Google Reader and such. Gradually.

Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#19
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gone all-in on Flutter for mobile development, and have quite a lot invested in it. I'm sure quite a lot of other people have. If Google sunsets it, I'll be so pissed off. I'll never trust anything else coming from them again.

I find it odd how someone can look at https://killedbygoogle.com/ and still choose to go all in on a new Google product.

To quote Krusty the Clown: "Because I'm an idiot! Happy?"

Re: Flutter seems to be having bad times internally

#20

It reads as if Flutter is getting scrapped as a Google project quite honestly. If true I can see the blowback being pretty severe on this one.

I've gone all-in on Flutter for mobile development, and have quite a lot invested in it. I'm sure quite a lot of other people have. If Google sunsets it, I'll be so pissed off. I'll never trust anything else coming from them again.

Is Flutter free software? If so, I'm sure other companies will continue to fund it's development, especially those that have products developed in it.
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