The State of Node.js Core
summary
Downloads double from roughly 2M to 4.5M since 2021 and the release cadence stays fixed: April/October majors, even numbers go to LTS. Concrete changes: node 20 ships fetch, web streams (compatible but currently slower), V8 improvements and WASM Promise integration; a new node test runner with reporters, mocking and coverage; single-file executables via postjack; Linux-only io_uring gives benchmarks up to ~8x I/O speedups; a permission system experimental ships but already causes CVEs — migrate off Node 14/16 to Node 18+ for production.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (23)
- 0:00Introduction and thanks
- 1:22Node.js popularity and npm growth
- 2:06History of Node.js governance
- 4:13Long-term support schedule
- 7:00Release lines and LTS explained
- 8:06Node.js version 14 end of life
- 8:28Node.js version 16 end of life
- 9:10Node.js version 18 active LTS
- 9:53Node.js version 19 odd release
- 10:37Node.js version 20 features
- 11:19Version usage breakdown
- 12:44Choosing Node.js version for production
- 13:25Node 20 challenges and warnings
- 15:12New V8 features in Node.js
- 17:40Web platform features in Node.js
- 19:27New Node.js test runner
- 22:38Node-only core modules
- 23:41Node.js watch mode
- 24:24New CLI utilities and features
- 25:50Node.js permission system
- 27:12IOU ring performance improvements
- 28:35Upcoming Node.js features
- 30:23Important links and resources
