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npm should not be terrified, we've been working with them and they've been very encouraging.

From their perspective it's very difficult to make breaking changes to the client because of the sheer number of people depending on them. (We've faced similar problems on Babel)

Yarn still makes use of the npm registry and all the high quality infrastructure they've built and support they provide for the ecosystem. They are a critical piece of this.

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I mean I understand the intent but it turns npm into basically a dumb pipe / just infrastructure. Every business that gets reduced to that struggles to get out of that space and expand.

Granted it's far too early to write npm off. But with how slow they've moved over the years I'm unconvinced that yarn won't take over the space unless it runs into some bad problems. Npm 3 and its launch was an absolute mess and, ultimately, it's almost just a package managing tool. I am unconvinced that breaking changes is much of an issue if at all for them. They could abandon shrinkwrap into a better system and I think everyone would be happy for it; no need to keep propping up that awful system.

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