There's one thought that keeps me brooding..., and it's related to the JAMstack. I think Gatsby.js wants to be/needs to be/can be the next front-end for Wordpress. So how, and more important: Why. Why does WP need a new front-end.
I see the need for traditional CMS monoliths declining rapidly for huge business websites and even down to smaller websites. The need to be decentralised, secure, resilient and exchangeable will define the next couple of years. It already does.
Of all CMS out there, WP is the only one that has both an open source strategy as well as a cloud strategy. The latter one is due Wordpress's business model: Websites as a service, which will transform from the "monolith in the cloud" to decentralised (micro-)services.
Developments in recent years support this: Strengthening the API, getting rid of the Wordpress backend in favour of calypso. Having and editor (key piece!) that supports complex content structures, because they are easier to consume via the API.
So all good, there's just one problem: The Wordpress front-end is super tightly coupled to the core, unreasonable for cloud environments, and on top of it a chore to develop. Enter Gatsby.
Gatsby of all web frameworks out there has one long term goal: Making it super easy to get a new website running. Filling in the gaps between good DX and making that thing actually usable for non-techies.
Focus in recent times: Themes and Plug-Ins. Don't develop your site, click it together. This sounds super familiar to another web framework out there, don't you think?
And there's one huge benefit: It runs on any static file hosting service you can imagine. Easy to deploy, lifting processing weight to the build server or the client. Well, that's the JAMstack!
On the tech side, Gatsby also has two important challenges they are tackling right now. a) Incremental builds (making it cost effective and easier to deploy new blog posts for instance)
b) Connecting to all possible data sources with GraphQL. And with that, we have the wpgraphql.com plug-in. Jason, the developer of WPGraphQL just recently joined Gatsby to work full time on the plug-in.
Combining both would make sure that WP runs 1/3 of the web for years, and years to come. The core itself will become cloud optimised, most likely serverless and even easier to deploy (which helps smaller, self hosted websites as well, and makes room for new hosting services)
The front-end runs entirely decoupled, but well enough integrated on any static hosting service you like. Adding security and performance.
The key factors that make both technologies so popular and successful stay intact: The eco-system, the Developer experience, fit for Enterprise while enabling non-tech people to get websites up quick and reliable.
If I'm not completely mistaken, WP and Gatsby will come a lot, lot closer in the future. Up to a point where both are -- not technically, but in other terms -- inseparable. Bringing JAMstack to even more people that we currently can think of
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