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We are about to start the new project with Angular and Kendo Components, using Angular latest version 1.4, but I am hearing too many new things with Angular 2.0 but at the same time, it does not have backward compatibility.

With no release date announced, we are kind of confused about whether to wait 2.0 release date or go ahead with 1.4 ?

Please suggest.

Sohan Soni
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    It depends on how flexible you are in your project and how long-term that project is. Is it okay to work on beta software for a while with all the problems which may come from this with the advantage of being on the latest version in the long run; or are you on a tight deadline and need something guaranteed stable to rely on *today*? – deceze May 18 '15 at 08:04
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    start with 1.4 with typescript... it would be easy to move & you can move after a year or so when angular2.0 would become somewhat stable/most use cases being covered – harishr May 18 '15 at 08:13
  • See [angular 1 vs angular 2 for new project](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38229956/angular-1-vs-angular-2-for-new-project/44328165#44328165) – Somnath Muluk Jun 02 '17 at 11:56

2 Answers2

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Angular 1.x is here to stay for the next 3 years, at least. Here's why:

Originally Google said they would support AngularJS 1.x for approx. one year after the late-2015 release of 2.0. (so for the entire 2016), and they received a harsh reaction from the community.

Then, they changed their tune, saying that they will support version 1 as long as there is a high demand. This demand will be measured somehow by how well the community adopts version 2 as opposed to 1. (let's assume another year of updates, 2017)

When it comes to job posts AngularJS is still HUGE from what I've seen, which shows that companies are still investing heavily in 1.x. for new projects.

So, let's say Google will abandon the project for 2018. AngularJS is still open source (not like Windows XP), so there's an opportunity for others to pick up development from where Google left off. Even for version 1.4, Google states that:

"This Angular version is the first to be run by a much broader community oriented team, including many people from outside of the Google Angular team..."

(http://angularjs.blogspot.com/2015/05/angular-140-jaracimrman-existence.html)

This shows that Google is slowly releasing the project into the hands of the community.

There are many open source projects out there that are doing fine without Google's support. So will Angular 1.x. By the time 3 years have past, version 2.x will be more stable and the migration path will be proven and tested.

If this sounds scary, you can just pick another framework, but chances are the same problems will arise. It's a fast-paced front-end world.

Nahn
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Angular 2 will certainly break backward compatibility, but it is not even a beta. That means that half of the implementation of Angular 2 is still on the air so you can't create a big Angular 2 application yet.

You need to wait a few months for Angular 2 to be stable + few months for the libraries to be ported to Angular 2.

In short, you better use angular 1.x for this project and maybe the next ;)

Jesus Rodriguez
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