Node.js was initially written by Ryan Dahl in 2009,[10] about 13 years after the introduction of the first server-side JavaScript environment, Netscape’s LiveWire Pro Web.[11] The initial release supported only Linux and Mac OS X. Its development and maintenance was led by Dahl and later sponsored by Joyent.[12]
Dahl criticized the limited capability of Apache HTTP Server to handle many (10,000+) concurrent connections, as well as the dominant programming paradigm of sequential programming, in which applications could block entire processes or cause the creation of multiple execution stacks for simultaneous connections.[13]
Dahl demonstrated the project at the inaugural European JSConf on November 8, 2009.[14][15][16] Node.js combined Google‘s V8 JavaScript engine, an event loop, and a low-level I/O API.[17]
In January 2010, a package manager was introduced for the Node.js environment called npm.[18] The package manager allows programmers to publish and share Node.js packages, along with the accompanying source code, and is designed to simplify the installation, update and uninstallation of packages.[17]
In June 2011, Microsoft and Joyent implemented a native Windows version of Node.js.[19] The first Node.js build supporting Windows was released in July 2011.
In January 2012, Dahl yielded management of the project to npm creator Isaac Schlueter.[20] In January 2014, Schlueter announced that Timothy J. Fontaine would lead the project.[21]
In December 2014, Fedor Indutny created io.js, a fork of Node.js created because of dissatisfaction with Joyent’s governance as an open-governance alternative with a separate technical committee. The goal was to enable a structure that would be more receptive to community input, including the updating of io.js with the latest Google V8 JavaScript engine releases, diverging from Node.js’s approach at that time.[22]
The Node.js Foundation, formed to reconcile Node.js and io.js under a unified banner, was announced in February 2015.[23] The merger was realized in September 2015 with Node.js v0.12 and io.js v3.3 combining into Node v4.0.[24] This merge brought V8 ES6 features into Node.js and started a long-term support release cycle.[25] By 2016, the io.js website recommended returning to Node.js and announced no further io.js releases, effectively ending the fork and solidifying the merger’s success.[26]
In 2019, the JS Foundation and Node.js Foundation merged to form the OpenJS Foundation.
On September 6, 2023, Node.js 20.6.0 was released. The update brought the addition of built-in support for .env files, the unflagging of import.meta.resolve, the introduction of a new node:module API register for module customization hooks and a new initialize hook. Additionally, the module customization load hook now supports CommonJS, and Node.js C++ add-ons have gained experimental support for cppgc (Oilpan), which is a C++ garbage collection library for V8.[27]
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