[gcp]

Maybe it depends on what your view of jQuery is:

In the case of JavaScript libraries virtually everyone has standardized upon jQuery at this point.

In other words, as far as he cares things other than jQuery don't have a right of existence. Although it's very popular it's probably even more arguable if there aren't better JavaScript frameworks than jQuery, compared to whether there are better rendering engines than WebKit.

I believe it comes pretty close to illustrating what I believe is so wrong about his arguments.

[jeresig]

Are there better JavaScript libraries than jQuery at certain things? Absolutely -- look to Backbone, Angular, Meteor, etc. etc. Are they better than jQuery at doing DOM manipulation? I think that's an easy argument simply by looking at the numbers: http://trends.builtwith.com/javascript/jQuery

jQuery or WebKit being dominant platforms doesn't requite that innovation stop, it gives innovation the ability to explode: When you don't have to work about nit-picky cross-platform capabilities or standardization then you get to focus on performance and building sweet frameworks like Backbone and Angular.

[oinksoft]

  I think that's an easy argument simply by looking at the
  numbers

Popular does not imply "better."

[breck]

Popularity is highly correlated with quality.

Given that A is 10-100x more popular than B, what are the odds that B is "better" than A? Slim.

Now, popularity does not imply that something is the best. Often times there is something better that isn't as popular. But generally the popular thing is better than most alternatives.

[dvhh]

Popularity is no correlated with quality, more with "good enough for the price".

[phpnode]

Backbone, Angular, Meteor etc etc ALL use jQuery!

[pestaa]

Wrong. At least Angular JS brings its own jQuery-like functions and does not depend on jQuery by itself.

[camus]

angularjs uses jquery api , like zepto does it is a hidden dependency. but you are basically using a subset of jquery when you use angularjs.

[qu4z-2]

And Gecko uses most of the WebKit api. We're talking about implementations here, not specs.

[camus]

the implementation is the same.if you use jQuery script the jQlite code is disabled in AngularJS. it is only possible if the subset code respect all the behavior or the main code. And Gecko doesnt use Webkit api at all. Chrome just cant swap its webkit code to to Gecko without significant rewrite.

[sigzero]

"In other words, as far as he cares things other than jQuery don't have a right of existence."

I don't think he made that point at all. He is merely reflecting on the fact that jQuery has the most market share and by a long way.

[Achshar]

I actually don't like jQuery at all and I read the headline in negative, so your theory holds true, atleast to me.