Is React too big to fail?

In the sense "will you still find new job listings in a decade if you learn it now", then I would say highly likely. In the case its not, the path from React to the Next Big Thing™ will be very publicised and you'll be drowning in blog posts describing the differences.

React will fail under a few possible conditions:

* Browser tech evolves to not need it (WebASM and similar tech becomes mainstream)

* Browsers and the open web fail in favor of some other cross-platform standard emerging

* Browsers and the open web fail because an existing platform (like MacOS/iOS) reach 70% or greater marketshare with lower costs of development than the web.

Right now, none of these seems feasible, so I believe React will endure. I can't see any of the other JS frameworks having a strong and compelling reason to take it down. The only risks are more of a fundamental change.

Do you say that as assuming react is currently the biggest and widest adopted framework? Angular still seems to be more popular in corporations (at least in the UK) although I'd prefer react generally. I guess that might be because angular is more batteries included.

How could it fail?

A bank can fail and then you can't get money out of your checking account.

React might decline in popularity compared to a new alternative, or Facebook might decide to stop maintaining it -- but unless it gets deleted from npm life will go on.

Personally, I prefer Vue but why does it matter if it is too big to fail or not ? It is just another JS framework and I am sure there will be many more in the future. Also hearing good things about Svelte.

I don't personally like it. But rather than see it "fail" I'd prefer there be many great options and less tribalism around frameworks and stacks.

All frameworks will go out of fashion. React is probably going to outlast others but who knows. It's really hard to predict. Technology in the web front end is in constant flux.

What does that phrase mean as far as a framework goes?