Why The JavaScript World Is Still Waiting For Node.js 1.0

Node.js has been widely adopted by JavaScript developers for real-time applications, but the project has stayed below 1.0 because its leaders do not want to commit the ecosystem too early. TJ Fontaine presents Node 0.10 and the planned 0.12 release as evidence that the platform is already usable in production while still leaving room for cautious change.

Reading notes

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• Node.js has been on the scene for five years and is used for messaging tools, game servers, and other real-time applications.
• High-profile companies such as LinkedIn, eBay, Uber, Walmart, PayPal, Capital One, and Mapbox are mentioned as Node users or adopters.
• Fontaine says the point of Node on the Road is to show that Node can be used at an enterprise level.
• PayPal used Node first for prototyping and then in production after building a Java fallback.
• PayPal’s Node app was built almost twice as fast, with fewer people, handled twice as many requests per second, and served pages 35% faster in tests against the Java app.
• Fontaine says he could move the decimal today, but does not want to create a Python 2 and Python 3 situation.
• He also compares the risk to Perl 5 and Perl 6, where version splits hurt adoption.
• The project is holding back 1.0 until it can commit to a version it wants to support forever.
• Some unreliable features still need fixing, but removing them is difficult because people depend on them.
• Fontaine says the team is being cautious about changes and is focusing on version 0.12.