Why do people care which framework "blows" the other one away? In my opinion, it literally doesn't matter at all and arguing over such things seems amateur.
I mean, I could technically dig a hole in the ground with a spoon...it would get the job done, after all...or I could use a shovel or a back hoe. All three are capable of digging holes. Discussing which tools work best is an important question in software development. After all, the tools you choose can be force multipliers in your overall productivity as a team or organization.
No, because the cost of switching between the two is roughly zero. If switching took 6 months and $100K there would be lots of articles in the hole digging community about when and why to pick between the two.
I agree. The use of "Blowing away" in the title is incendiary and unnecessary.
It would be far better to state the metric they're using, i.e. "GitHub Stars !== Usage: React downloads still surpass Vue and Angular"
It's taken React about 2-3 years to go from being head to head with Angular(JS) to being the dominant frontend ecosystem. I expect within 2-3 years Vue and React will be on far more equal footing in terms of usage and jobs. (Assuming something else doesn't come along and topple the current trend towards reactive frontend tools.)
> I expect within 2-3 years Vue and React will be on far more equal footing in terms of usage and jobs.
I don't think this is true, primarily because of the number of large companies getting behind React and contributing to the ecosystem. Also, the difference between Angular and React is much larger (IMO) than the difference between React and Vue, which means there is less incentive to move to Vue if you already know React because the latter is Good Enough™.
On the other end, Vue is a natural move for companies looking to move off of jQuery and AngularJS but afraid or unwilling to make the move to React, and I suspect there are an order of magnitude more companies in this category than companies that have already adopted React.
I think you are right about the volume of companies in that category, though I think you are underestimating the network effect of a library with as much momentum as React. The libraries are similar enough that, for many (most?) projects, it makes more sense to use the more popular one.
> Why do people care which framework "blows" the other one away?
I suppose two factors:
- The scale/"startups = growth" tenet of Silicon Valley/Wall Street trickling down to micro business decisions — pick as many of (whatever is most popular | comes from Massively Scaled Company | used by companies trying to Massively Scale | growing in popularity fast) as possible
- Feedback loop of bosses/managers who make technical decisions based on hirability/availability of paid long-term technical support/brand name (In 2018, nobody ever gets fired for choosing whatever is the equivalent of IBM now)
That's the problem: there are so many tools/frameworks/libraries etc. with so much overlap that people don't know what tool is for what job anymore. And there might not be a real answer to that. When you have a situation like this, people tend to use proxy measures like github stars to figure out what tool to use. Sure, it might not be the right tool, but it's at least picking a tool, as opposed to being locked in constant confusion about which path to take. Sometimes the right tool is the tool you have.
I don't strictly disagree, but it is worth considering for anything other than hobby projects what is the mid to long life expectancy of the stack you are relying on.
An unmaintained lib might not become a problem or it could become a major obstacle down the line. It's a gamble.
Use whatever tool gets the job done.