Really? They are doing the minimum possible to prevent an exodus from their stack after a public outcry.
React would have been fine, but to say the big players jumping ship didn't matter is just wrong.
Projects that I work(ed) on that use React have no plans to switch away and aren't represented in that 25%.
25% of sites on the Internet run WordPress. WordPress was rewriting its editor in React, but decided to switch away due to BSD+Patents.
Those were the only two.
But it did matter.
It set a strong precedent.
Some 28.7% of sites use Wordpress.* Curiously, I've seen the 19% number being cited as 19% of all new websites use Wordpress. I'm not sure how 19% becomes 28.7%, but it may just be that sites using WP stick around longer.
* https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress/all/al...
Even being on the back-foot when having to defend your patents, by refactoring React out of your application, was apparently damning enough for people to migrate.
If you're ok with trusting a direct competitor not to misbehave, then sure, use React under those terms while competing with FB. But large companies consider their patent portfolio to be a significant strategic asset, so it shouldn't be surprising that their legal counsel advises against accepting such a clause.
This Facebook post gives us hope for GraphQL moving away from BSD+, as it is currently in our stack, but without doubt we are considering a move away due to uncertainty.
FWIW, why we prefer Apache 2.0: https://www.cncf.io/blog/2017/02/01/cncf-recommends-aslv2/
Evidently FB saw enough people leaving to prompt this change. No doubt they were also afraid of an exodus of their internal developers on these projects. High-profile developers will move on to companies where they know they'll have greater impact if that's seen to be at risk.
Theorizing, but I suspect FB will begin targeting and picking off IP of apps built entirely on React stacks in a few years.
Please don't go back to them. Just contribute to Vue's ecosystem like crazy. Worst case scenario it'll keep FB in check.
That said, this healthy Vue/Angular/React competition has been great for us devs.
In the case of fewer frameworks, you would still have these. Arguably more due to lack of competition.
> evaluating all the various alternatives
Pick one of the "Big 3" above. You'll be fine. Largely due to the previous point.
I think I'm going to dig in my heels this time. React is fine. It's more than fine, I absolutely love working with React, Redux, redux-saga, redux-observable, and a whole bunch of other libraries and patterns that I've finally begun to master after over a year of headaches and frustration. I'm not going to switch to Vue, not even for my next side project.
I didn't personally care about the BSD+Patents license, but you definitely have to keep your eyes and ears open with backlash like this. Even if I think it's a total issue, it might affect my ability to hire employees or even sell my company. So I'm really glad that React is now released under the MIT license.
Seems like an argument against the react ecosystem
It was the same as any other programming language, framework, or ecosystem. Exactly the same as my experience with Ruby on Rails when I first started doing web development.
The comment i made above, that most things going forward will happen in the react eco system, is supported by these statistics. If you have lots and lots of vue users that are still using script tags, and let us - without any data to confirm it - assume that there are less react users doing this, then that would speak volumes about the userbase at large, not the most forward leaning to say the least.
I almost guarantee you none of the devs wanted that weird-ass patent clause in there, but I'm guessing that none of them thought that it was a big deal in the long run, just CYA shit you'd expect from a legal department.
They were proven wrong, and it impacted their market share, they raised a stink about it and they got it changed.
Competing frameworks will now need a new "Reason #1 to use us instead" for their pitch-decks.
What do you expect them to do, shrug and come back? I doubt anyone who left based on concerns with their stack being owned by Facebook is likely to regret weaning themselves off of it.