The React license has been a concern for the open source community for some time.
Today Facebook has released a statement that React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js will be relicensed under the MIT license.
Great news for everyone.
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We're relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js under the MIT license. https://t.co/3XD0z49UsS
— React (@reactjs) September 22, 2017
Why the React license update?
Facebook is responding to the reaction of the open source community. Since introducing the BSD + Patents license for React, many developers and companies started to look for alternatives to React.
The founding developer of WordPress Matt Mullenweg announced in his On React and WordPress article that his team is taking a step back and will be rewriting the upcoming version of WordPress (Gutenberg) using a different library.
It will be interesting to see if WordPress spends their time and money rewriting Gutenberg using a different library or this React license update will be enough to win them back.
I would love to see WordPress use React for their codebase in the near future.
What does it mean for React developers?
This update means that everyone can focus on developing and shipping great products instead of worrying about any licensing issues.
No more legal conversations and confusion.
- The license will be updated for React 16.x and backported to React 15.x.
- Only React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js will be relicensed.
- GraphQL and React Native do not inherit the MIT license at the moment of writing this post.
- Other notable projects that use MIT License include Ruby on Rails, Node.js or jQuery.
Conclusion
What do you think about the update? Were you confused about the React licensing issue?
Were you looking for alternatives to React and if so which one did you choose and why?
Let me know in the comments.