Node.js Foundation Combines Node.js and io.js Into Single Codebase in New Release

The Node.js Project

More Stability, Security, and Improved Test Coverage Appeals to Growing Number of Enterprises Using Node.js

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 14, 2015 – The Node.js Foundation, a community-led and industry-backed consortium to advance the development of the Node.js platform, today announced the release of Node.js version 4.0.0. A record number of individuals and companies helped to contribute to the release, which combines both the Node.js project and io.js project in a single codebase under the direction of the Node.js Foundation.

Currently, Node.js is used by tens of thousands of organizations in more than 200 countries and amasses more than 2 million downloads per month. With major stability and security updates, a new test cluster, support for ARM processors and long-term support, Node.js v4 represents the latest framework innovation for enterprise users leveraging it to run JavaScript programs.

Named version 4.0.0 because it includes major updates from io.js version 3.0.0, the new release also contains V8 v4.5, the same version of V8 shipping with the Chrome web browser today. This brings with it many bonuses for Node.js users, most notably a raft of new ES6 features that are enabled by default including block scoping, classes, typed arrays (Node's Buffer is now backed by Uint8Array), generators, Promises, Symbols, template strings, collections (Map, Set, etc.) and new to V8 v4.5, arrow functions.

Node.js v4 also brings a plan for long-term support (LTS) and a regular release cycle. Release versioning now follows the Semantic Versioning Specification, a specification for version numbers of software libraries and similar dependencies, so expect increments of both minor and patch version over the coming weeks as bugs are fixed and features are added. The LTS will support enterprise users that need more long-term requirements and continue the innovation and work with the V8 team to ensure that Node.js continues to evolve.

"Under the Node.js Foundation, our unified community has made incredibly progress in developing a converged codebase,” said Mikeal Rogers, Community Manager of The Node.js Foundation. “We believe that the new release and LTS cycles allow the project to continue its innovation and adopt cutting-edge JavaScript features, while also serving the need for predictable long-term stability and security demanded by a growing number of enterprise users who are proudly adopting Node.js as a key technology.”

Additional updates include:

• Stability and Security: Key Node.js Foundation members, such as IBM, NodeSource and StrongLoop, contributed a strong enterprise-focus to the latest release. Their contributions make this latest version more stable and secure for enterprise needs.
• Improved Platform Test Coverage: With the assistance of some major partners, including RackSpace, DigitalOcean, Scaleway and ARM Holdings, the new release has built one of the most advanced testing clusters of any major open source project creating additional stability to the platform.
• First-Class Coverage of ARM variants: All major ARM variants, ARMv6, ARMv7, and the brand new 64-bit ARMv8, which is making major inroads in the server market, are supported as part of the test infrastructure. Developers who need to use these architectures for developing enterprise-ready and IoT applications are assured solid runtime.
• Addition of Arrow Functions: Node.js v4 now includes arrow functions, an addition that was not previously available even in io.js.

The technical steering committee for the Node.js Foundation is now 15 members strong with 40 plus core committers and 350+ GitHub organization members contributing to the community. The development process and release cycles are much faster due to the large, active community united under the Node.js Foundation umbrella. The next release is planned before the end of 2015. In parallel, the project will be branching a new stable line of releases every six months, with one planned in October and another for spring of 2016.

Additional Resources

• Technical Blog - Node v4.0.0 (Stable)
• New GitHub home

About Node.js Foundation Node.js Foundation is a collaborative open source project dedicated to building and supporting the Node.js platform and other related modules. Node.js is used by tens of thousands of organizations in more than 200 countries and amasses more than 2 million downloads per month. It is the runtime of choice for high-performance, low latency applications, powering everything from enterprise applications, robots, API engines, cloud stacks and mobile websites. The Foundation is made up of a diverse group of companies including Platinum members Famous, IBM, Intel, Joyent, Microsoft and PayPal. Gold members include GoDaddy, NodeSource and Modulus/Progress Software, and Silver members include Apigee, Codefresh, DigitalOcean, Fidelity, Groupon, nearForm, npm, Sauce Labs, SAP, StrongLoop and YLD!. Get involved here: https://nodejs.org/. The Node.js Foundation is a Collaborative Project at The Linux Foundation. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. https://foundation.nodejs.org/

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