Shadcn/UI now defaults to Base UI instead of Radix

The big news is simple: new shadcn/ui projects now start with Base UI instead of Radix. The creators are stressing, loudly, that this is not a breakup and not a forced move. Radix still works, still gets support, and nobody has to touch a working app. But the community heard "new default" and immediately did what the internet does best: turned it into a debate about taste, tools, and whether modern web building has become gloriously flexible or completely absurd.

Some people were already cheering from the sidelines. One early user said Base UI felt more pleasant for building bigger, more customized pieces, basically giving the switch a calm "finally" energy. Others were less zen. One commenter roasted shadcn's old Radix-based parts as a little too much, pointing at the radio button as the kind of over-engineered choice that makes normal people wonder why selecting one dot needs a philosophy degree. Then came the practical grumbling: if shadcn's whole gimmick is copying code into your project so you can edit it, is it still "simple" when you now need an AI migration helper instead of just bumping a version number?

And that AI angle lit up its own side plot. One commenter called the move away from traditional upgrade scripts toward large language models an "interesting development," which in internet-speak is half curiosity, half are we really doing this now? Meanwhile, the funniest review of the entire switch may also be the shortest: "based." Sometimes the comments don't need nuance. They just need vibes.