What does RSC stand for?

React Server Components. They are components that run on the server. Or are they?

Ryan's Sorta Convinced

Ryan Florence is one of the creators behind Remix, and at first he didn't seem sold on RSCs. Some back and forth feedback, prototyping, and public criticism later and he seems more willing to adopt it in the main competition framework to Next.js.

RFCs don't Substitute for Communication

One of the first mentions of RSCs was in a Request for Comment. They asked a circle of technical people what they thought about a new model for React. Hooks were incubated in a private circle and then unveiled mostly complete to the public. The RFC process wanted to make that more transparent, with the caveat that there would be no guarantee that any idea would be unchanged.

Rauch Sells to the Crowd

Next.js is the most popular React framework today. They are great at communicating ideas and getting traction. The first mainstream application of RSCs was via Next.js's App Router. That leads to confusion about what was RSC and what was particular to the Next.js App Router.

React's Scale is Crazy

React is one of the most popular technologies ever. Ask a product manager and they'll know what a React Developer is but they might never have heard of the term Single Page App. React is a decade old brand.

Change management in this scale is hard. Unlike in a closed organisation like Meta where they can enforce rules and upgrade everyone by applying codemods to a monorepo, the React community is organic and diverse. If people like Create React App they will still use it. If people prefer the Jamstack they'll build their new projects with that architecture.