Recently Bun 1.0 came out to much fanfare. And rightly so! It is a very ambitious project that aims to be a drop-in replacement for your JavaScript package manager, transpiler, bundler, testing library, and even NodeJS itself. While this is all indeed very exciting, and I am really interested to see how Bun grows and evolves, this is not the first time I've noticed everyone rush to try out the new thing in web development. I'm here to tell you that you don't need to do that. In fact, it can be a big determent to your project.
The Temptation of FOMO
Whenever a new JS tool comes out, and I see all the bombastic articles being written about it, I start getting feeling the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). It seems like everyone else is jumping on this new cool bandwagon, and since I am not doing it right away, I might get left behind. But the truth is that this never happens, because all the early adopters usually end up being beta testers, breaking their apps/build systems by trying to fit the new shiny thing in their codebase.
When to Experiment with New Tools
I'm not saying that you should never try anything new. But there is a time and a place for testing new tools out. Like hobby projects, or smaller/"younger" projects that have less dependencies to manage. Anything where you can move fast and break things, or where the impact of things breaking is low, should be fine to play around with and give new things a shot. However, if you have an enterprise level app with a bunch of people working on it, please do not rush to adopt the newest JavaScript thing that reached version x.0.
Prioritizing Stability in Enterprise Projects
Any major version jumps (like from 2.x to 3.0), usually contain a lot of breaking changes. Migrations like this can be a pain to do, but are usually necessary for security/compatibility reasons. I recommend setting up and using something like dependabot, since it's very helpful in keeping things up to date.
In addition to that, in case of it being a new library (like finally reaching 1.0), it means that not many people are using it, and you probably won't find answers online to the issues you encounter specific to your project. You will have a bad time, and your co-workers will dislike you when things inevitably break.
You're not missing out
In the ever-evolving world of web development, it's easy to get swept up in the excitement of new tools and frameworks. However, it's essential to remember that the race to adopt the latest and greatest doesn't always lead to success. Whether you're working on a hobby project or a massive enterprise application, take your time, carefully evaluate the impact of new tools, and prioritize the stability of your projects over the allure of the 'next big thing.' After all, you're not missing out – you're ensuring that your work stands the test of time.
Top comments (1)
Thank you for this post! I was also feeling a little left out when everyone was talking about Bun being the next big thing. It's totally okay not to try every new, exciting tool right away. I'm a bit surprised that Bun doesn't run on Windows yet, though.