Node.js: #1 Most Watched GitHub Repository

Well that didn't take very long. Only three years since the creation of Node.js by Ryan Dahl (of Joyent), the programming language/runtime environment is now the most watched/followed code repository on GitHub. From the VentureBeat article by Jolie O'Dell:

Node.js became the most popular code repository on Github over the holiday weekend. With 11,460 watchers as of this writing, the Node repo now has more attention than Rails, which has 11,274 watchers.The Node repo has been around since early 2009; Github cites February 15 as the date of Dahl’s first commits. The development of Node is sponsored by Joyent, the company that employs Dahl and a few other Node core contributors, as well as offering Node-related support to enterprise-level companies that want to adopt Node.In addition to garnering its fair share of watchers, the Node core also saw a surge of commits recently. Since the summer, both the number of commits and contributors have picked up significantly:Ryan Dahl, Node’s creator, still remains the most consistent and active contributor to the Node core.

Obviously, Joyent is extremely bullish on Node.js. We are the corporate steward of the Node.js open source project and we sponsor and help run key Node events like Node.js Camp and the NodeKnockout programming competition (which doubled in size over the past two years). Joyent also is using Node to build just about all of our services and agents for our SmartDataCenter virtual / cloud data center software product that powers the Joyent Cloud and all the service providers we partner with (such as Libero, who launched their own cloud over Thanksgiving Day). Joyent Cloud Analytics uses Node.js for data collection and collation and Joyent uses Node.js in key APIs. A number of our other analytics tools use Node. In the Joyent Cloud, we offer a purpose-built, pre-installed Node.js SmartMachine appliance that is both very quick to deploy and handles very high capacity and high performance requirements.

Equally important, we are constantly blown away by the types of things we see our customers doing with Node - like GoInstant and their Node.js based real-time Web sharing tool that requires incredibly low latency over vastly disparate network topographies and end user device connection combinations.

This milestone clearly illustrates that Node.js has arrived a key programming language that more and more people will learn and use (particularly because anyone who knows JS already knows a bit about Node). At Joyent we hear every day about another major product application either porting over to Node.js from another language or about new applications that are built on Node.js specifically to take advantage of performance advantages. That's why companies like Voxer and Uber - some of the hottest Web companies - are building on Node.js. And lots of the tech giants, like Microsoft and Yahoo!, are making big investments in Node and using it for their applications. Joyent also provides Node.js support / assistance to a number of these larger firms, including LinkedIn, eBay, and HP.

If you want to learn more about Node.js from the business side of the question, sign up for the first Node Summit on January 24-25 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco (Joyent is one of the lead sponsors). For developers, the Joyent technology team hosts regular Node.js Office Hours where devs can talk with Ryan, Dave Pacheco, Isaac Schlueter, and other Joyent engineers. We can't wait to see what 2012 brings for Node.js.



Post written by alexsalkever