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Is this viable to use as a drop in replacement for React? I am concerned about the license using React, that would be the sole reason to chose something else. I

Is this viable to use as a drop in replacement for React? I am concerned about the license using React, that would be the sole reason to chose something else. I also got few projects in React that we would like to keep.

cygned 9y ago
Same here. I am going to try to replace React with preact for the larger projects (webpack makes it easy) and run the e2e tests.
- StreamBright 9y ago
  Let me know the results. There might be other people in similar situation too.
tuxracer 9y ago
It can be an almost drop in replacement for many projects. You may have to lean on the officially offered https://github.com/developit/preact-compat https://github.com/developit/preact-compat depending on the project. If you add preact-compact you do lose some of the size advantage over react but that's not really an issue if licensing is your main concern. Seems the preact author might want to consider marketing preact as not only the lighter weight alternative, but also the MIT licensed alternative to react (Although if more projects included that surprisingly controversial patent clause it would mark the end of software patents. Isn't that a good thing?)
danmaz74 9y ago
Be very careful. If FB holds any patents covering React, they are also enough likely to cover Preact. And there is no patent grant at all with Preact.
- pluma 9y ago
  Also, for all we know FB might hold patents covering parts of Angular or Vue as well. Avoiding React because of the patent grant is a complete non-sequitur. The only thing we know about FB's patents is that using React means they won't sue you over patents covering React and they won't revoke the grant if you countersue (unless you countersue for patents you hold over React). The entire hysteria seems to only be backed by armchair lawyering and open source purism (the latter of which is orthogonal to whether there is a legal risk or not). There are plenty of major corporations that likely hold an arsenal of patents who use React despite these concerns. Unless you're an Apache project (and thus have to worry about open source purity) or a direct competitor who intends to sue people over patents (and thus have to worry about patent warfare), stop worrying about patent grants.
  - StreamBright 9y ago
    What about the following situation: We are approached by a big company to buy our startup. In that case do they have the same limitation of not being able to sue Facebook? Do you think that Amazon or Google would be as happy buying your startup with React as without it? I was just wondering about this angle.
    - pluma 9y ago
      Amazon uses React. https://medium.com/@blairanderson/amazons-new-brand-stores-utilizing-react-framework-a22f56e9e206 https://medium.com/@blairanderson/amazons-new-brand-stores-u... Google uses React. In fact, that's why the language used in the patent grant was changed. https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/7293#issuecomment-233302318 https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/7293#issuecomment-2... Apple uses React. https://twitter.com/soprano/status/705516380913692672 https://twitter.com/soprano/status/705516380913692672 Twitter uses React. https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/02/twitter-react-mobile-stack https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/02/twitter-react-mobile-stac... Microsoft uses React. https://microsoft.github.io/reactxp/ https://microsoft.github.io/reactxp/ Seems like they don't care what some guy on Medium thinks.
      - c12 9y ago
        Seems like sound logic that given many different companies including those in competition with Facebook are using React that there should be no worries for the rest of us.
- StreamBright 9y ago
  True, at least we are not directly using React in that case. I think there is a difference between directly using React or through software like Preact. I am going to ask our lawyers about this.

cygned 9y ago

Same here. I am going to try to replace React with preact for the larger projects (webpack makes it easy) and run the e2e tests.

StreamBright 9y ago
Let me know the results. There might be other people in similar situation too.

tuxracer 9y ago

It can be an almost drop in replacement for many projects. You may have to lean on the officially offered https://github.com/developit/preact-compat https://github.com/developit/preact-compat depending on the project. If you add preact-compact you do lose some of the size advantage over react but that's not really an issue if licensing is your main concern. Seems the preact author might want to consider marketing preact as not only the lighter weight alternative, but also the MIT licensed alternative to react (Although if more projects included that surprisingly controversial patent clause it would mark the end of software patents. Isn't that a good thing?)

danmaz74 9y ago

Be very careful. If FB holds any patents covering React, they are also enough likely to cover Preact. And there is no patent grant at all with Preact.

pluma 9y ago
Also, for all we know FB might hold patents covering parts of Angular or Vue as well. Avoiding React because of the patent grant is a complete non-sequitur. The only thing we know about FB's patents is that using React means they won't sue you over patents covering React and they won't revoke the grant if you countersue (unless you countersue for patents you hold over React). The entire hysteria seems to only be backed by armchair lawyering and open source purism (the latter of which is orthogonal to whether there is a legal risk or not). There are plenty of major corporations that likely hold an arsenal of patents who use React despite these concerns. Unless you're an Apache project (and thus have to worry about open source purity) or a direct competitor who intends to sue people over patents (and thus have to worry about patent warfare), stop worrying about patent grants.
- StreamBright 9y ago
  What about the following situation: We are approached by a big company to buy our startup. In that case do they have the same limitation of not being able to sue Facebook? Do you think that Amazon or Google would be as happy buying your startup with React as without it? I was just wondering about this angle.
  - pluma 9y ago
    Amazon uses React. https://medium.com/@blairanderson/amazons-new-brand-stores-utilizing-react-framework-a22f56e9e206 https://medium.com/@blairanderson/amazons-new-brand-stores-u... Google uses React. In fact, that's why the language used in the patent grant was changed. https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/7293#issuecomment-233302318 https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/7293#issuecomment-2... Apple uses React. https://twitter.com/soprano/status/705516380913692672 https://twitter.com/soprano/status/705516380913692672 Twitter uses React. https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/02/twitter-react-mobile-stack https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/02/twitter-react-mobile-stac... Microsoft uses React. https://microsoft.github.io/reactxp/ https://microsoft.github.io/reactxp/ Seems like they don't care what some guy on Medium thinks.
    - c12 9y ago
      Seems like sound logic that given many different companies including those in competition with Facebook are using React that there should be no worries for the rest of us.
StreamBright 9y ago
True, at least we are not directly using React in that case. I think there is a difference between directly using React or through software like Preact. I am going to ask our lawyers about this.