Rob Eisenberg, the creator and face of the Aurelia JavaScript framework, has taken a job with Microsoft, leaving some in the community to wonder what the future holds for Aurelia.
In a blog post, Eisenberg announced he was joining Microsoft as a Sr. Program Manager to work on their new documentation service. He says that the move won't limit his ability to work on Aurelia:
A strict requirement of me taking the job was that I could continue my work on Aurelia while being employed at Microsoft. I also wanted to ensure that Blue Spire, the company that owns and manages Aurelia, could continue to operate, providing the Aurelia community with the resources it needs. I'm pleased to say that all of this is nicely in order.
The news is a bit of a shock since Aurelia just hit version 1.0 less than two months ago. Some who have become disenchanted with Angular and React have looked to Aurelia as an alternative. Others may now take a closer look before deciding to build upon Aurelia. In a lively discussion on Reddit, user wisepresident asked if Aurelia is "left to die", saying that while Eisenberg says nothing will change, "I and many others raise doubt on that statement."
Ashley Grant, the Aurelia Community Lead, responded to a number of points in the Reddit discussion, trying to reassure the community.
Aurelia isn't going anywhere. Rob could get hit by a bus tomorrow and Aurelia will go on. Let's put it this way: Rob isn't the world's premier expert on Aurelia's templating and binding systems. Jeremy Danyow is. Nobody really hears about Jeremy because he's a quiet guy who doesn't like to draw attention to himself. But he has become the lead developer on our templating and binding system. He recently helped add new features to our router, as well. Rob's time as lead developer on our CLI probably will come to an end soon as we find another core team member to lead that development effort.
On Twitter, Grant reiterated that Aurelia is more than just one person:
I love when devs tell me I don't exist, since @AureliaEffect is "just Rob." It's a real slap in the face to the nearly 30 ppl on the team
— Ashley Grant (@ashleymgrant) September 25, 2016
Recently, Eisenberg made another change, announcing that Blue Spire Acquired Aurelia from Durandal and said that "Blue Spire is purging all projects and goals not related to its frontend technologies so that the company can focus 100% on Aurelia and its future." Blue Spire is owned and operated by Eisenberg.
Of course, since Aurelia is open-source, anyone can fork the project and take it in a different direction.
Editor's Note: This article was edited for clarity regarding the ownership of Durandal Inc.
Community comments
Reddit Thread
by Jeremy Danyow,
Not Pleased
by Rob Eisenberg,
Aurelia's Rob Eisenberg Joins Microsoft
by Mobilunity Com,
Reddit Thread
by Jeremy Danyow,
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In addition to Ashley's comment in the reddit thread, there are several other Aurelia Core Team member comments, including my own.
Not Pleased
by Rob Eisenberg,
Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.
I have to say...I'm getting pretty ticked off by this idea that I'm the only person that works on Aurelia. That is an insult to the entire team. There are almost 30 people who work very hard on Aurelia. It's extremely insulting to discount the people who are doing the majority of the work. As Ashley points out, there are people like Jeremy and Martin who have done most of the really hard work on templating and binding. There are guys like Bryan that have taken the router and stabilized it and made it suitable for production. Patrick has worked across the board on many systems. Vildan has built an amazing i18n system. The list goes on and on. The only thing I do is provide vision, merge PRs, perform repo maintenance and write a few blogs posts. The hard, meaningful work is done by everyone else.
Also, let's check our facts. While Blue Spire is a company that I own, Durandal Inc. was a Delaware C Corp with several equity holding founders. To represent it as a company that was owned and operated by me is fallacious.
Now, on to the general issue of whether or not Aurelia will be left to die. Of course not! As mentioned, there are almost 30 devs on the team and we're planning to grow the team more this year and next year. We've got major new initiatives we are spinning up now as well. As for myself, Aurelia is my favorite platform and I'm personally committed to continue leading the project. In fact, I've been re-invigorated and am looking forward to some of the new initiatives we are working on as well as a couple of my own apps I'm building. All that aside, I've been running open source projects for 10 years and I've never left a project to die. Caliburn is still maintained and released even after 10 years. Caliburn.Micro is still maintained and released after 6 years. Durandal is still maintained and released as well. In fact, we had a Durandal release last Friday. So Aurelia, which has more resources, more interest and a dedicated team, beyond all these other projects, will certainly continue.
Can we please stop with these sorts of insults?
Aurelia's Rob Eisenberg Joins Microsoft
by Mobilunity Com,
Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.
There is no way to define if this news would have a visible impact on Aurelia development. Rob Eisenberg might be one of those people, that manage to do a couple of things at the same time. It’s too soon to judge. Aurelia has become a great alternative for many developers, who are tired of using big structure frameworks and want something new. It has many advantages, that make it worth considering already. I doubt much would change due to this new fact alone. More information about this framework is available via this link: mobilunity.com/blog/hire-aurelia-developer-in-e...