Am I the only one that thinks this is complete garbage?

Look, WordPress started developing Calypso in 2014/2015. Back then, the license to React was more restrictive/ambiguous than it is today. It was modified Summer of 2016 after strong push back from the (non-wordpress) community (and pretty sure it was Google, but don’t have the link handy — google it).

No issues from WordPress yet… still promoting Calypso like it’s the best new thing since sliced bread.

At some point through all this they begin work on Gutenberg. Again, React still had the same, clear license that it has today.

STILL no problems raised by WordPress team. And in fact, as @matt himself stated in this article, he had a blog post typed up ready to trumpet how everything should be using React — plugins, themes, etc.

Fast forward to today and, to quote @Matt, “Core WordPress updates go out to over a quarter of all websites, having them all inherit the patents clause isn’t something I’m comfortable with.”

W T F??

Call me crazy, but the way I see it, there’s only 1 of 2 things that caused this about-face:

1. Terrible management/vision. Did you just “hope” Facebook would change their licensing clause just-in-time? You had zero hope of this. Facebook has been adamant about their BSD + Patents license, and have made their reasons clear time & time again. So it’s not like this just appeared out of thin air. If anything, Facebook has been very transparent on this issue.

2. You’re only pulling the usage of React in Gutenberg because of perceived community blow back. And therefore, it’s a marketing decision. Fair, but then be honest about it. Don’t get on some high horse and pretend like you’re taking up some pseudo moral crusade. You aren’t. You’re making a business decision, and I respect that. But again, call it for what it is and don’t hide behind some feel-good rhetoric.

Regardless of whether we’re here today because of #1 or #2 really doesn’t matter. Neither of them inspires confidence, but maybe that’s just me…

Sorry if that comes across as harsh, but truth is truth. And people need to see through the BS that this article spits out.

…or if I missed something, please correct me @matt