May 2025 – Hot New Web Dev

Welcome to Hot Web Dev May 2025, featuring the latest technology, web development news and articles. In this edition, we say goodbye to pocket, as well as some news on the recent open-sourcing of a popular Microsoft tool. The tool of the month is now free for everyone to use, and it can enhance your portfolio.

Saying Goodbye to Pocket

Mozilla recently announced that Pocket, its award-winning bookmarking service, which was acquired back in 2017, is shutting down. One feature I enjoyed was the reader mode, which filtered out the junk, leaving just the text. Nowadays, some browsers have this feature built in, and there is likely a plugin for those who don’t.

The change allows Mozilla to concentrate on other areas, such as the Firefox browser, which has lost many users over the years and is behind in implementing new web features, including CSS updates. Pocket will cease working on July 8th. If you wish to export your bookmarks, you have until October 8th, when all data will be deleted.

It has become commonplace for handy apps we use for any length of time to shut down. Nothing lasts forever, I guess.

Source

Mozilla Blog

Microsoft Open Sources WSL

Developing using Windows used to be a pain. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) was first introduced in 2016. It allowed Windows to run Linux applications without dual-booting or using a Virtual Machine. The standalone WSL package, released in 2021, now uses the Linux kernel and offers improved features for Windows 11 users. The growth of WSL has relied on a community of developers to make major contributions and fixes. Now that it is open source and the source code is available for everyone to see, this will expand the community and benefit all who use it.

Source
Microsoft Blog

Learning Resources

Vue.js is a progressive JavaScript framework used for building user interfaces (UIs) and single-page applications (SPAs). It’s known for being lightweight, flexible, and easy to integrate with other libraries or existing projects. You can learn more about Vue.js with this 6-hour course courtesy of FreeCodeCamp.

Whilst on the subject of JavaScript, here are ten resources where you can learn JavaScript from zero knowledge to pro.

Coding Resources

I recently came across an article where the author reflects on the value of language flexibility for senior engineers, drawing from their 18-year career using various languages. He talks about learning new programming languages in comparison to becoming fluent in them. He highlights the challenges programmers face and the divide between frontend and backend developers.

Another good read for this month is a beginner’s guide to REST, RESTful and API documentation, which covers everything, including its history, what it does and how it communicates with other interfaces.

WOW Tool Of The Month

Want to add some animation to your website? GSAP have recently announced that their professional JavaScript animation library is now free to all, including commercial use. The news arrived after being recently acquired by Webflow, a web publishing platform. GSAP supports Webflow as well as WordPress. It is platform-agnostic, so it can also work in React, Vue, Angular and more. A positive purchase that allows all web devs to flip and tween to their heart’s content.

Must-Read Resources From May 2025

• Linux 6.15 Kernel Released, This is What’s New
• 10 Best CSS Snippets for Web Designers in 2025
• 11 Essential Frontend Development Tips for Beginners
• Dialog is for modals, popover is for everything else
• 9 Ways GIMP’s Latest Update Makes Photoshop Obsolete