> Regardless, it's not a big deal to `apt-get install nodejs; npm install -g grunt`. Unless of course you have automated the installation of software on your s

> Regardless, it's not a big deal to `apt-get install nodejs; npm install -g grunt`. Unless of course you have automated the installation of software on your systems. At this point it's somewhere between confusing, mildly annoying and terribly annoying, depending in what route you go. You could make a Debian package yourself, or you use your configuration management system to install the npm package (assuming it supports npm or there is an npm plugin) Both have disadvantages: there are tools to automatically create debs from npm packages, but I've seen bugs with them causing various levels of pain. Or you make the package yourself and get blasted by full-on bureaucracy that is the Debian package build tool chain. Going the configuration management route has the disadvantage that now multiple pieces of software are used to install packages which is a bit inconsistent and might be confusing to other users. Yeah. Not a big deal, but getting stuff directly from your OS vendor is VERY convenient. I agree with your reasoning about the devDependency though. That makes not much sense.