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The trajectory of Lightbend has been raising doubts for a while, some would argue since the renaming. One important change coming with Scala 3 is precisely tha

The trajectory of Lightbend has been raising doubts for a while, some would argue since the renaming. One important change coming with Scala 3 is precisely that its future doesn't depend on Lightbend's financial success anymore.

morsch 4y ago
How so? Aren't they the most significant contributor by far?
- hocuspocus 4y ago
  Not directly no. The last major contribution from Lightbend employees was the big collections rewrite in the standard library (shared by Scala 2.13 and 3.x). The Scala 3 compiler and core tooling is developed by the LAMP, the Scala Center, VirtusLab and a few other people. Lightbend is maintaining Scala 2 compilers (2.11, 2.12, 2.13).
- weego 4y ago
  They've always floundered around trying to find something that stuck that could also have a path to profit. Being around the edges of the tech orgs that went in early on Scala it often felt like the Scala ecosystem initially thrived (the likes of Twitter releasing genuine quality oss in particular) despite the lack-lustre job of Typsesafe / Lightbend to cement themselves at the center. With play being given to the community, lagom being underwhelming and a bit of a catch-the-wave thing, it's only really Akka that endures on top of the core language, which isn't really a great showing after so long.
  - tsss 4y ago
    They also developed Slick, which has been abandoned for a while now, unfortunately.
the_af 4y ago
> The trajectory of Lightbend has been raising doubts for a while, some would argue since the renaming. Definitely. I remember some of us Scala early adopters being concerned about the nonsensical name change, and being assured by others that nothing fundamental was being changed, that Lightbend was "a more user friendly name than TypeSafe" (as if the notion of type-safety was a barrier to entry for goddamn Scala, for crying out loud). Seems we skeptics were proven right.

morsch 4y ago

How so? Aren't they the most significant contributor by far?

hocuspocus 4y ago
Not directly no. The last major contribution from Lightbend employees was the big collections rewrite in the standard library (shared by Scala 2.13 and 3.x). The Scala 3 compiler and core tooling is developed by the LAMP, the Scala Center, VirtusLab and a few other people. Lightbend is maintaining Scala 2 compilers (2.11, 2.12, 2.13).
weego 4y ago
They've always floundered around trying to find something that stuck that could also have a path to profit. Being around the edges of the tech orgs that went in early on Scala it often felt like the Scala ecosystem initially thrived (the likes of Twitter releasing genuine quality oss in particular) despite the lack-lustre job of Typsesafe / Lightbend to cement themselves at the center. With play being given to the community, lagom being underwhelming and a bit of a catch-the-wave thing, it's only really Akka that endures on top of the core language, which isn't really a great showing after so long.
- tsss 4y ago
  They also developed Slick, which has been abandoned for a while now, unfortunately.

the_af 4y ago

> The trajectory of Lightbend has been raising doubts for a while, some would argue since the renaming. Definitely. I remember some of us Scala early adopters being concerned about the nonsensical name change, and being assured by others that nothing fundamental was being changed, that Lightbend was "a more user friendly name than TypeSafe" (as if the notion of type-safety was a barrier to entry for goddamn Scala, for crying out loud). Seems we skeptics were proven right.