Live data from Hacker News

EmDash creators on lock-in, Node sandboxing, and Cloudflare's commitment [video]

youtube.com

1–6 of 6 posts

Re: EmDash creators on lock-in, Node sandboxing, and Cloudflare's commitment [video]

#2
Disclosure: I'm one of the hosts.

This was one of EmDash's first podcast interviews since launch. A few things that came up that I haven't seen addressed elsewhere:

- Kane confirmed Matthew Prince (Cloudflare CEO) directly asked "can we build the next WordPress?" — this was top-down, not a skunkworks project

- Their Q2 roadmap was literally a question mark. They didn't know if anyone would care. The community response changed that, and they're actively allocating resources

- Plugin sandboxing outside Cloudflare is being worked on by community contributors; Kane expects a Node implementation "next week"

- They want federated/distributed plugin marketplaces (looking at the FAIR proposal), not a centralized store

- Joost de Valk (Yoast creator) already has a merged PR improving SEO handling in core

- No marketplace monetization yet, but they explicitly want devs to build commercial businesses on it

First 37 minutes is the interview, rest is discussion of implications from a WordPress product perspective.

Re: EmDash creators on lock-in, Node sandboxing, and Cloudflare's commitment [video]

#3
post #2

Disclosure: I'm one of the hosts. This was one of EmDash's first podcast interviews since launch. A few things that came up that I haven't seen addressed elsewhere: - Kane confirmed Matthew Prince (Cloudflare CEO) directly asked "can we build the next WordPress?" — this was top-down, not a skunkworks project - Their Q2 roadmap was literally a question mark. They didn't know if anyone would care. The community respons…

> this was top-down, not a skunkworks project

This is telling, though it already seems like it. It's just another vendor's lock-in.

Re: EmDash creators on lock-in, Node sandboxing, and Cloudflare's commitment [video]

#4
post #3
post #2

Disclosure: I'm one of the hosts. This was one of EmDash's first podcast interviews since launch. A few things that came up that I haven't seen addressed elsewhere: - Kane confirmed Matthew Prince (Cloudflare CEO) directly asked "can we build the next WordPress?" — this was top-down, not a skunkworks project - Their Q2 roadmap was literally a question mark. They didn't know if anyone would care. The community respons…

> this was top-down, not a skunkworks project This is telling, though it already seems like it. It's just another vendor's lock-in.

They're actively trying to avoid any kind of lock in, by the sounds of it. I'm still skeptical myself but it's at least a "wait and see"

Re: EmDash creators on lock-in, Node sandboxing, and Cloudflare's commitment [video]

#5
post #3
post #2

Disclosure: I'm one of the hosts. This was one of EmDash's first podcast interviews since launch. A few things that came up that I haven't seen addressed elsewhere: - Kane confirmed Matthew Prince (Cloudflare CEO) directly asked "can we build the next WordPress?" — this was top-down, not a skunkworks project - Their Q2 roadmap was literally a question mark. They didn't know if anyone would care. The community respons…

> this was top-down, not a skunkworks project This is telling, though it already seems like it. It's just another vendor's lock-in.

That's been the most common criticism, but it already doesn't require CF, and they're explicitly working on extending plugin sandboxing to work on other platforms. Plus, of course, GPL.

I don't see this as any more vendor-locking than a .com account. It's still early days, so can't really judge it as a finished product, but the opening shot across the bow is a big one.

Re: EmDash creators on lock-in, Node sandboxing, and Cloudflare's commitment [video]

#6
post #5
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this was top-down, not a skunkworks project This is telling, though it already seems like it. It's just another vendor's lock-in.

That's been the most common criticism, but it already doesn't require CF, and they're explicitly working on extending plugin sandboxing to work on other platforms. Plus, of course, GPL. I don't see this as any more vendor-locking than a .com account. It's still early days, so can't really judge it as a finished product, but the opening shot across the bow is a big one.

NextJS doesn't require Vercel, but it certainly does not work as well without them. Are wordpress users going to migrate? Who are they targeting with this?

Top-down project directives are a signal the CEO is out of touch and becoming Elon-esc.

As a user, I want a container registry and managed kubernetes. These block my adoption of Cloudflare as a primary provider. This story around emdash tells me to stop considering CF effective immediately. I was already of this mind seeing how little they help developers on Discord and in their own forums.