Node.js

Node.js is a totally free and open-source software that helps web developers create scalable and speedy network programs. It's built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime, which makes it super efficient and lightweight. One of the coolest things about Node.js is its non-blocking, event-driven I/O model—this means it can handle multiple requests without getting stuck!

The Go-To Platform for Server-Side JavaScript

Right now, Node.js is seen as the best platform for running JavaScript on the server side. Big names like Google, eBay, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Cloud9 are using it in their projects.

Creating Your First Web Server

If you want to try out Node.js yourself, here's a simple code snippet to create a web server that replies with "Hello World" to every request:

var http = require('http');

http.createServer(function (req, res) {

 res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});

 res.end('Hello World');

}).listen(1337, '127.0.0.1');

console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/');

Running Your HTTP Server

To run the HTTP server using this code, save it in a file called "example.js" (no quotes needed). Then execute it through your terminal with this command:

% node example.js

Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/

Multi-Platform Support

Node.js works on multiple platforms! It has been tested successfully on various GNU/Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, openSUSE, Mageia, Slackware and more! It also runs smoothly on Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

Downloading Node.js

You can easily download Node.js as pre-built installers for Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and Windows or grab a universal source archive that you can compile on almost any system that supports Python!

If you're ready to dive in and download Node.js, just click the link!