What's wrong with Ember.js?

Once you have React and Angular in your toolkit, should you concern yourself with Ember.js?

Executive summary: No.

React comes from Facebook; Angular comes from Google.  If you live in the Silicon Valley like I do, Facebook and Google cast a long shadow.  Many companies, large and small, "cargo cult" Facebook and Google; that is, they adopt technology blindly based on what Facebook and Google do, hoping that that imitating success will yield real success.  Many startups adopt "hot" technologies to appeal to venture capitalists ("hey, we're just like Google!") and to garner attention from developers and the press.

Right now (9/20/2017), React is in the cat bird seat.  React developers command the extravagant salaries and most of the pursuit by recruiters.  In contrast, AngularJS (1.x) is a workhorse: valued by many companies but also some willing to leave positions open rather than paying a premium and others paying a limited premium in developer salaries.  Angular (2/4) is rarely seen: companies who adopted Angular (2/4) seem oddly out of touch, like they didn't get the memo, and seem to have little interest in paying salary premiums.

Where is Ember.js?

Ember.js is at LinkedIn, a respectable name to be sure, but hardly the influencer that Google and Facebook are.  Ember.js is also seen at the occasional AI or hardware startup.  No salary premium for Ember.js developers: those companies think that being an Ember.js developer shows that you are a free-thinking hippie that cares more about concepts than money.

Ember.js gets an honorable mention by those job postings that read, "must know at least one of React, AngularJS, Ember.js or other JavaScript framework".  Hey, that's something: Vue.js doesn't get this kind of respect.  But we all know that, when a job posting reads like that, it really means, "Hell, we're don't know jack about any of these JavaScript frameworks so, if you've done any of it, it's all the same to us."

Recently, I did a multi-day investigation and technical review on Ember.js and, while Ember.js seems technically competitive with React and Angular in some respects, there was no indication that they were ever going to emerge from their rather distant third place, open source, hippie-dippie "alternative" framework status.  Having recently reviewed Backbone.js, I see a lot of intellectual inheritance from Backbone.js in Ember.js and, believe me, that's not a compliment.  That smell of Backbone.js in Ember.js makes it feel ... old.

I have to give the Ember.js team respect for hanging it there all this time.  But, sorry, I will not be staking my future on Ember.js, either now or anytime soon.  Nor will I be considering any Ember.js positions.  And I'd advise others not to, either.

But, hey, Ember.js, if, someday, you break through, give me a call.  I'm in the book.