The wikipedia explanation... Node.js is an evented I/O framework for the V8 JavaScript engine. It is intended for writing scalable network programs such as web

The wikipedia explanation... Node.js is an evented I/O framework for the V8 JavaScript engine. It is intended for writing scalable network programs such as web servers. So, if you need a web server, you need to build it. But as you can see from the front page of the node.js site, writing a simple web server is... simple. ;) Otherwise, the easiest way to understand with it is to dig in and play with it. Heroku has Node hosting in beta (invite only) so you might keep an eye out for that. Take a look at howtonode.org for some great tutorials to start with.