I was going through the change log, but didn't find many compelling reasons to upgrade to Bootstrap 4 (considering the hype created). What do you think? Are you going to upgrade to Bootstrap 4?
Yes. I am willing to upgrade to Bootstrap 4. I am not sure why you are not motivated enough, but I am super excited. Here are the reasons :
Bootstrap now uses Sass instead of LESS. This means we, the Sass lovers, have a reason to rejoice and not to forget Bootstrap now runs faster than ever thanks to Libsass (the C implementation of the traditional Ruby Sass).
The second thing I liked the most is the support for Flexbox. Now you have the option to choose Flexbox based grid system and honestly this is the future.
All the JavaScript plugins have been rewritten to support ES6. This means you have better plugin support in Bootstrap 4 and can take advantage of the new ES6 features.
I also noted that responsive typography is way easier in Bootstrap 4. This is because the new Bootstrap has moved from pixels to rem and em units, which is a good thing.
As I speculated earlier, no more IE8 support. Hurray!!
I think it's great they finally got to sass, that they've dropped ie8, and that they support flexbox. Seems like little a thing, but it is a necessary step and I'm glad they took it.
Don't think there's a whole lot more to it, though
I am in a 50/50 state. Some of the good things, as pointed by Robert, are
However, looking at the sorry state of Flexbox support in browsers, I am still not sure about the Flexbox switch. But the good thing is that it's disabled by default and you can optionally enable it. So, I will continue with version 3 and check back again once Bootstrap 4 final is released.
It all depends on your situation.
If I want to make money and put food on the table then I stick with Bootstrap 3 because I have developed already existing components around it.
If I want to upgrade to Bootstrap 4 then I risk significant productivity decrease and therefore business for the sake of some benefits that in the end have no significant functional impact for the client.
So the question is are you in the middle of development. If you are, then it would be crazy to simply scrap everything.
If on the other hand you are beginning development of a new app, then you should consider a transition, if it's not too much trouble.
Upgrading the framework itself is not the problem, the problem is if you have tried and tested complex components built around the framework that you're wiling to sacrifice.
Just cuz there is "excitement" and more positives around something new, doesn't mean you should go forth with it. You have to assess the drawbacks as well on a much broader level.
Having said that, it's probably not that difficult to go from BS3 to BS4 anyhow.
My point here is that listening to what the crowd sayz is best for you may not be best for you at all.
Björn
Insane Full-Stack Developer
Andrea Brandi
Author, videomaker, developer.
IDMan
I read through the changes and have to say that I am really interested in some of the improvements and am looking forward to test them out.
The improved grid system. In some cases, I faced some difficulties with the old grid system, so I hope that the new one will wipe these out.
The improved tooltip placement. Again, I faced problems with the old tooltips. Sometimes they were hidden behind other divs, were miss-positioned, or simply out of the window.
Flexbox support. Honestly, who doesn't want to flex their muscle?... or boxes?
But there are some points I don't agree with (not only bootstrap, but with all design guidelines and frameworks).
I saw the new templates, which bootstrap now sells. (They sell it, or did I saw something wrong?) I saw many homepages designed with bootstrap. And what I don't like is... many people just stop designing once they pick a template. They use 1:1 what they get delivered from these frameworks.
It's like "the best resume on the web" which was posted on devmag. It was good, but not the best, because it was simply using the material guidelines 1:1.
So, I hope that even with the new, better, more fancier and maybe awesomer bootstrap 4.0, designer will start to optimize and individualize their design, and not just think "oh, hey, bootstrap does this right, we use it!".