I agree with what you're saying. But I think the "grand experiment" of npm and modern javascript development is to go "all in" on the "lots of small modules" ap

I agree with what you're saying. But I think the "grand experiment" of npm and modern javascript development is to go "all in" on the "lots of small modules" approach. Having many small dependencies is, and always has been, a trade off. The question is how far can we get optimising away from the pitfalls, while still retaining the benefits? I think it's a worthy exercise, since the prize is no less than efficiently distributing coding effort across the globe. Problems like we've seen today are a double edged sword. On the one hand they're troubling, but it'll focus the community on the problems, and hopefully npm will make a few changes too. > A build server that depends on the state of the naked internet Whether npm based or not, don't the vast majority of build servers, for whatever language or platform, rely on the state of the naked internet? Whether that's downloading binaries, compiling from source, or whatever?