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Node.js Foundation and JavaScript Foundation Announce Intent to Merge

156 points by dankohn1 8y ago

EB66 8y ago
I'm not really happy to hear about this. To me, it demonstrates that the JS Foundation continues to focus on the wrong priorities. They've thoroughly neglected their stewardship responsibilities for a number of different open source projects. They've seen a reduction in sponsorship/funding for maintaining projects and they've pulled back from GSoC and other events that were essential in drawing in new open source contributors. On top of all that, they've piled on bureaucracy and alienated many important long-time contributors: https://github.com/globalizejs/globalize/pull/703 https://github.com/globalizejs/globalize/pull/703 Despite their slogan "The Center of Gravity in the Javascript Ecosystem", these days, the JS Foundation is largely an irrelevant organization. I see this merge as a last ditch effort to retain some sort of relevancy. They've abandoned their roots as a center of innovation. I see no effort to pivot their existing dying projects to compete in today's JS ecosystem dominated by component-based SPA frameworks.
- k__ 8y ago
  Maybe the merge leads to Node people doing the stuff the non-Node people didn't?
  - EB66 8y ago
    I hope so, but I think it's unlikely. The Node.js Foundation isn't in the business of supporting open source contributions to existing projects.
monsieurbanana 8y ago
It's the first time I heard of the Javascript Foundation. What's exactly it's purpose? Founding the projects it hosts? https://js.foundation/community/projects https://js.foundation/community/projects
- irrational 8y ago
  This was my thought. I've never heard of a JavaScript Foundation. What purpose do they serve?
  - sitepodmatt 8y ago
    They will merge with padString and addNumber foundations. /Sarcasm aside I've never heard of either and I've done an intolerable amount of node.js
johnkpaul 8y ago
For those who haven't heard of it, the JavaScript Foundation used to be called the jQuery Foundation.
- EB66 8y ago
  I'm no expert on the history, but I believe JS Foundation was the re-launch/re-brand of the merging of the jQuery and Dojo Foundation.
  - johnkpaul 8y ago
    Hmm, I had thought that the jQuery/Dojo merge happened first but tbh I don't remember the timing.
danShumway 8y ago
I am not sure how I feel about this. I don't have strong opinions about either organization, but this feels like a situation where diversity might be a strength. The JS ecosystem is really, really big and I kind of like having stakeholders in it that are pursuing different goals and that can go in different directions. Fragmentation can be a weakness, but so can consolidation. And I can not stress this enough -- the JS ecosystem is massive. There are so many different parties that have interests that should be represented. Having multiple foundations might be a more effective way to do that? Or maybe I'm just worried over nothing, I dunno. It just feels a little weird.
TimTheTinker 8y ago
The JS Foundation is already hosting a lot of popular projects that run in back-end and build/CI environments -- webpack, ESLint, Esprima, Grunt, Intern, JerryScript, Mocha, QUnit, NodeRed, webhint, WebDriverIO, etc. Adding Node.JS itself to the mix would seem to make a lot of sense.
cremp 8y ago
So basically, I just just stay far and away from anything javascript now; not just node.js. Got it. This can't end well anyway; javascript itself is a client side language, and node, using the same language, made it server side. That's been my whole gripe with Node in the first place, because you're taking a tool (square,) and force-fitting it into a round hole.
- nebulous1 8y ago
  node.js came into existence because it turned out that it was particularly apt for server side programming, not because it was force fitted into it.
  - aaronblohowiak 8y ago
    A belief that it’s creater later discovered was in err.
    - Nadya 8y ago
      Ryan Dahl has only spoken about implementation details and poor decisions made at the start that are too far along to correct now. He says Go is better than Node, not Javascript. If Javascript-as-a-server was a mistake then Ryan would not be working on Deno [0]. I just hope that the use of Py2 and having to stick with it doesn't bite them in the ass past 2020 [1]. With the caveat of my argument assuming "Typescript is a superset of Javascript." [0] https://github.com/denoland/deno https://github.com/denoland/deno [1] https://github.com/denoland/deno/issues/464#issuecomment-411795578 https://github.com/denoland/deno/issues/464#issuecomment-411...
      - nebulous1 8y ago
        I don't see (from that issue, this is the first I've heard of it) that they "have to stick with it". They're saying they won't try to move to python 3 until the V8 build does. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
      - aaronblohowiak 8y ago
talltimtom 8y ago
Vote for Python in the browser 2020!
sarahdavid130 8y ago
Thanks for publishing this post i really like this post
z3t4 8y ago
Node.JS is a fast and simple server framework. Perfect for userspace level applications, everything from simple chat apps to distributed services. It has a lot of potentials. Not just as glue for front end frameworks.

156 points by dankohn1 8y ago

EB66 8y ago

I'm not really happy to hear about this. To me, it demonstrates that the JS Foundation continues to focus on the wrong priorities. They've thoroughly neglected their stewardship responsibilities for a number of different open source projects. They've seen a reduction in sponsorship/funding for maintaining projects and they've pulled back from GSoC and other events that were essential in drawing in new open source contributors. On top of all that, they've piled on bureaucracy and alienated many important long-time contributors: https://github.com/globalizejs/globalize/pull/703 https://github.com/globalizejs/globalize/pull/703 Despite their slogan "The Center of Gravity in the Javascript Ecosystem", these days, the JS Foundation is largely an irrelevant organization. I see this merge as a last ditch effort to retain some sort of relevancy. They've abandoned their roots as a center of innovation. I see no effort to pivot their existing dying projects to compete in today's JS ecosystem dominated by component-based SPA frameworks.

k__ 8y ago
Maybe the merge leads to Node people doing the stuff the non-Node people didn't?
- EB66 8y ago
  I hope so, but I think it's unlikely. The Node.js Foundation isn't in the business of supporting open source contributions to existing projects.

monsieurbanana 8y ago

It's the first time I heard of the Javascript Foundation. What's exactly it's purpose? Founding the projects it hosts? https://js.foundation/community/projects https://js.foundation/community/projects

irrational 8y ago
This was my thought. I've never heard of a JavaScript Foundation. What purpose do they serve?
- sitepodmatt 8y ago
  They will merge with padString and addNumber foundations. /Sarcasm aside I've never heard of either and I've done an intolerable amount of node.js

johnkpaul 8y ago

For those who haven't heard of it, the JavaScript Foundation used to be called the jQuery Foundation.

EB66 8y ago
I'm no expert on the history, but I believe JS Foundation was the re-launch/re-brand of the merging of the jQuery and Dojo Foundation.
- johnkpaul 8y ago
  Hmm, I had thought that the jQuery/Dojo merge happened first but tbh I don't remember the timing.

danShumway 8y ago

I am not sure how I feel about this. I don't have strong opinions about either organization, but this feels like a situation where diversity might be a strength. The JS ecosystem is really, really big and I kind of like having stakeholders in it that are pursuing different goals and that can go in different directions. Fragmentation can be a weakness, but so can consolidation. And I can not stress this enough -- the JS ecosystem is massive. There are so many different parties that have interests that should be represented. Having multiple foundations might be a more effective way to do that? Or maybe I'm just worried over nothing, I dunno. It just feels a little weird.

TimTheTinker 8y ago

The JS Foundation is already hosting a lot of popular projects that run in back-end and build/CI environments -- webpack, ESLint, Esprima, Grunt, Intern, JerryScript, Mocha, QUnit, NodeRed, webhint, WebDriverIO, etc. Adding Node.JS itself to the mix would seem to make a lot of sense.

cremp 8y ago

So basically, I just just stay far and away from anything javascript now; not just node.js. Got it. This can't end well anyway; javascript itself is a client side language, and node, using the same language, made it server side. That's been my whole gripe with Node in the first place, because you're taking a tool (square,) and force-fitting it into a round hole.

nebulous1 8y ago
node.js came into existence because it turned out that it was particularly apt for server side programming, not because it was force fitted into it.
- aaronblohowiak 8y ago
  A belief that it’s creater later discovered was in err.
  - Nadya 8y ago
    Ryan Dahl has only spoken about implementation details and poor decisions made at the start that are too far along to correct now. He says Go is better than Node, not Javascript. If Javascript-as-a-server was a mistake then Ryan would not be working on Deno [0]. I just hope that the use of Py2 and having to stick with it doesn't bite them in the ass past 2020 [1]. With the caveat of my argument assuming "Typescript is a superset of Javascript." [0] https://github.com/denoland/deno https://github.com/denoland/deno [1] https://github.com/denoland/deno/issues/464#issuecomment-411795578 https://github.com/denoland/deno/issues/464#issuecomment-411...
    - nebulous1 8y ago
      I don't see (from that issue, this is the first I've heard of it) that they "have to stick with it". They're saying they won't try to move to python 3 until the V8 build does. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
    - aaronblohowiak 8y ago

talltimtom 8y ago

Vote for Python in the browser 2020!

sarahdavid130 8y ago

Thanks for publishing this post i really like this post

z3t4 8y ago

Node.JS is a fast and simple server framework. Perfect for userspace level applications, everything from simple chat apps to distributed services. It has a lot of potentials. Not just as glue for front end frameworks.