React - Facebook patent - a problem?

:slight_smile:

So back to square one folks, you need to evaluate open source libraries based on all merits, technical, business and legal, not just adopt them because technically you deem them superior. There are many newbies on this forum, and we need to exercise caution in our messages.

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+1 - especially as virtually all of the modern stack gets tied into this.

If you build a big application on React/Redux/GraphQL, and the associated tools, and you do not consider the business and legal aspects of their licensing, you could be in for a really bad time.

Agreed. Thanks for sparring with me respectfully. Helps refine arguments. :+1:t2:

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Thanks @ryanswapp,
Same here. This is a great forum and people tend to be helpful and supportive.

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The list I made was more geared to libraries similar to react in concept, using DOM diffing, and JS structuring (JSX compiles to several of them). Angular and Blaze are too different. But, nonetheless, they are alternatives! :slight_smile:

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Yeah, I would agree that the likelihood is little. But if it happen, the impact is big.

This remind me of The Black Swan: Don’t ever underestimate an event that have likelihood near to zero!

We can relate this with the current event: Who ever think RethinkDB will be shutdowned? Everyone surprised!

Since bunch of excellent alternative are available, I’d rather play safe.

Seems posts are not editable after a while, so adding to the list here:

I like Blaze. I started with Angular (1x) and its a PITA for a learning curve. Have not done anything with react. IAMNAL but I tend to read licenses and avoid ones that could impinge at some future time. I spend a lot of time already working on the optimum solution to problems. Avoiding potential issues just makes sense in that context. Consistency works well for me.

I have gotten cease and desists from some major companies, so don’t think it cant happen. One was citing and extrapolated over the tenuous 9th circuit ruling in regards to 3taps vs craigslist. When you get a successful app/site running, you will draw a lot of eyes. You are foolish if you think you have the resources to deal with a legal challenge from perkins+coie. Just because others do something does not make it a good choice.

Probability is misconceived. To look at something with a tiny yet non-zero probability and say “that’s not going to happen” is misleading. Something with a 1/10000 probability will happen. There are no reservations as to when it will happen during those trials. It may happen on the very first try. Or it may happen on the second try. Or it may happen on the third try. And then of course probably never again for 9,997 trials. But in this case it only needs to happen once to have its impact. If it happens on the very first trial, then all of those 9,999 future trials in which it won’t occur-- none of those even matter in a situation like this.

TLDR; Don’t be misled by probability when looking at single-run events. Things that aren’t likely to happen may still happen on the first try.

Trump wasn’t likely to win and he won on his first try. He probably would have lost most of them if the election was ran multiple times, but he only needed to win the first time. Not most of the time.

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