Carson Gross got hired by GitHub. Your timeline is now unbearable.
When the HTMX creator joined GitHub's Next R&D team, two camps immediately claimed total ideological victory within hours. HTMX fans announced React's imminent death, while React fans dismissed the move as a simple acqui-hire. They’re both wrong.
What Actually Happened
GitHub brought Carson Gross onto their research and development team. That's the update. That's the news.
HTMX is a hypermedia-focused library that extends HTML with AJAX attributes. It lets you do dynamic UI stuff without writing JavaScript. It's genuinely clever and useful for a specific set of problems.
GitHub already uses React heavily across its frontend. They didn't rip it out. They didn't announce plans to rip it out. They hired one person to explore ideas.
The HTMX Victory Lap Is Premature
I understand you. When you've been yelling "we don't need 200KB of JavaScript to update a div" for three years, it's like you've been proven right. Your hero was noticed by a big company. 🎉
But a research hire is not an endorsement of your architecture choices. Companies like GitHub have R&D teams specifically to hedge bets and explore alternatives. That is the purpose of R&D. They do not intend to rewrite github.com in HTMX in the next quarter.
→ One hire does not equal a technology shift.
→ R&D teams explore dozens of directions, most of which go nowhere.
→ GitHub investing in HTMX research says "interesting" not "winner."
It's quite embarrassing to see you using this to respond to React developers mentioning you. Please stop.
The React Dismissal Is Equally Delusional
On the other side, I've seen React devs acting like this is meaningless. “It’s just corporate charity.” “They’re only paying him to maintain the project, nothing else.”
That's nonsense. GitHub wouldn't pay for R&D teams if they didn't think there was value there. They clearly see something worth investigating in the hypermedia approach. Maybe they're only interested in certain aspects. Maybe it's for specific parts of their product where a lighter touch makes sense. Either way, they're taking it seriously enough to pay for it.
→ Dismissing HTMX as a toy ignores real problems it solves.
→ Not every UI needs a virtual DOM and a state management library.
→ Server-rendered HTML with sprinkles of interactivity is a legitimate pattern.
If your response to this news is "lol who cares," you're telling on yourself. You have not considered the tool. You've only chosen a side.
This Is Just Corporate R&D Hedging
Based on what I see, GitHub is a large platform with various components, and different parts have different requirements. While some features may require a complex client-side framework, others could function well with a more simplistic approach like HTMX that reduces the overall complexity.
Smart companies don't marry one approach forever. They explore. They experiment. They keep options open. That's boring and reasonable, which is exactly why nobody wants to hear it. 😅
The real lesson here isn't "HTMX good, React bad" or the reverse. It's that the industry is slowly accepting what senior devs have known forever: pick the right tool for the specific problem. Sometimes that's React. Sometimes that's HTMX. Sometimes it's a plain HTML form with zero JavaScript.
The Actual Takeaway
Let's not associate frontend tool choices with political affiliations. The news that Carson Gross was hired by GitHub is intriguing. It indicates that the hypermedia approach is valid enough to demand serious consideration at the enterprise level. It doesn't mean React is obsolete, your SPA is legacy code, or you should rewrite stuff. Just relax. 🧊
What's your honest take — have you actually tried HTMX on a real project, or are you just vibing with the discourse?
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