
A month of Flutter: a look back - abraham
https://bendyworks.com/blog/a-month-of-flutter-a-look-back
======
pjmlp
For those betting on Fuchsia to help Flutter's adoption, work has started to
create an UI compositor that is framework agnostic and there is a prototype of
a Rust based UI.

[https://fuchsia.googlesource.com/garnet/+/master/docs/ui/sce...](https://fuchsia.googlesource.com/garnet/+/master/docs/ui/scenic.md)

[https://fuchsia.googlesource.com/garnet/+/0a214f5721d723a7d0...](https://fuchsia.googlesource.com/garnet/+/0a214f5721d723a7d0757531d157f76bb54b9f95/public/rust/fuchsia-
ui)

And Android is being ported to Fuchsia, similarly to what happened to ChromeOS
and Brillo.

[https://android-review.googlesource.com/q/fuchsia](https://android-
review.googlesource.com/q/fuchsia)

~~~
rufugee
So you're saying you don't believe Fuchsia will lead to increased flutter use
because there will be other options?

~~~
pjmlp
Yes.

I expect just like it happened with Brillo and its C++ Frameworks, reborn as
Android Things, Google will replace Flutter by something with more mainstream
market acceptance, and the UI agnostic composition engine is paving the way
for that decision.

------
Touche
The rise of Flutter makes a lot of sense when you think about how mobile has
evolved over the last 5 years.

The days of Instapaper and the like where you could build a really good app
and sell it, are long since past. Nowadays I'm not sure it's really possible
to make money as an app startup. Your best bet is probably releasing a game
and being the one-in-a-million that goes viral.

Other than that, apps are the purview of existing big companies, and those
mostly are concerned with lowering costs (since margins on mobile are so
thin). With that being the case, something like Flutter that gives you a
fairly good cross-platform experience are going to thrive.

It's sort of like Java in the enterprise. It doesn't matter if it's pleasant
to use. There's a clearpath towards success, it's safe for cheaper developers
to use and not screw things up to bad. It will never be the hot thing but it
doesn't need to be; that's not its target demographic.

~~~
hota_mazi
The... "rise" of Flutter? According to which metric?

Flutter is nonexistent outside Google employees and a handful of Flutter
advocates who write books or blog posts about it.

The performance and tool chain penalty of flutter makes absolutely zero sense
today, when so many better alternatives exist.

~~~
timsneath
Disclosure: I'm one of those Google employees.

I think it's a bit of a stretch to say it's non-existent outside of Google;
curious to know what made you feel so negatively about it.

Flutter is one of the top 30 most starred repos on Github (top 20 if you
exclude non-software content); given that it wasn't even in the top 100 six
months ago, I think most would agree it's growing pretty quickly. And even
though it's only been out of beta for three weeks, it's used by large
companies from Alibaba to Square to Capital One. Examples like this [1] show
that it's fully capable of delivering game-quality experiences even on older
devices, since it compiles directly to ARM code and uses the Skia graphics
engine.

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.two_dimens...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.two_dimensions.showcaseapp&hl=en_US)

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _Flutter is one of the top 30 most starred repos on Github (top 20 if you
> exclude non-software content); given that it wasn 't even in the top 100 six
> months ago, I think most would agree it's growing pretty quickly._

Are Github stars a valid metric for use? Personally, I have ~280 repos
starred, and all of those stars are bookmarks. "Cute, I might use it one day".

------
sawyerjhood
I was really surprised at how dev.to drove traffic. I've never used the site
before, does anyone have any experience with it / any good communities to get
started with?

~~~
d0100
I made an account recently. The content is pretty basic and quality posts are
few and far in between.

If you are looking for a growing community, it looks like a good place to
post, since competition isn't that hard.

