Netflix functions without client-side React, and it’s a good thing

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Recently Netflix removed client-side React from their landing page which caused a bit of a stir. So Jake Archibald investigated why the team did that and how it’s actually a good thing for the React community in the long term:

When the PS4 was released in 2013, one of its advertised features was progressive downloading – allowing gamers to start playing a game while it’s downloading. Although this was a breakthrough for consoles, the web has been doing this for 20 years. The HTML spec (warning: 8mb document), despite its size, starts rendering once ~20k is fetched.

Unfortunately, it’s a feature we often engineer-away with single page apps, by channelling everything through a medium that isn’t streaming-friendly, such as a large JS bundle.

I like the whole vibe of this post because it suggests that we should be careful when we pick our tools; we only should pick the right tool for the right job, instead of treating every issue as if it needs a giant hammer made of JavaScript. Also! Burke Holland wrote a funny piece last week on this topic with some of his thoughts.

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