Goodbye Joyent, Hello Node.js Foundation

Last December, the world of server-side JavaScript was forever changed with the release of io.js. Since its release, io.js has had an immediate impact on the world of server-side JavaScript as it created an alternative platform to Joyent’s Node.js, or more simply known as Node. Those behind io.js built the platform to stay current with the latest features of the v8 JavaScript engine, something that Node.js failed to do. As a result of io.js’ impact, Joyent decided to give up sole ownership of the project to the Node.js foundation, a third-party made up of developers from some of the world’s top technology companies. Although the Node.js foundation continuously reached out to io.js to merge back with its predecessor, it would ultimately be a few months before io.js agreed to merge with the Node.js foundation. It will operate under the name Node.js.

To help you get the most complete overview on the success of io.js, in this article I will discuss what sparked the creation of the new platform, the key individuals behind it, and the governance model which I believe made this project so unbelievably successful.

What Sparked io.js

Oddly enough, many of the core developers at Joyent were behind the creation of io.js as a result of a bit of discord between the development team building the platform, and the administration in charge of implementing new builds. To help solve this problem, the developers at Joyent worked to craft a new model as background to develop the Platform. However, their conversations with the administration went nowhere. Often, developers working on the Node.js platform would have to watch the code to which they dedicated a great deal of time sit on a shelf which was disheartening. As time continued, tension continued to grow. Things changed when Fedor Idutny, a core developer at Node, took the liberty to fork Node.js, thus marking the creation of io.js. Idutny knew that he had the support of colleagues, and was confident that the project would be successful in providing a platform which supplied the latest support for ES6 on the server-side.

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by Thomas Greco via SitePoint