Node.js is the software that allows you to run Javascript to create powerful server-side applications by using Google's V8 Javascript Engine. As a Node developer myself, I have always felt frustrated by seeing that Joyent, the company behind Node.s, was extremely conservative in terms of upgrading node to use the latest V8 version; the project was also struggling to get developers to actually contribute to code. This is why Fedor Indutny did the unthinkable: forked node and created IO.js. Today, the two projects are uniting possibly offering developers the best of both worlds
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 21 2015, @11:25AM
Well, normally you would have your apache.ini file which had to be edited, you would have your mysql server that would need to be setup, you'd have an SMTP server setup for mail, and the list goes on and on.
NodeJs takes all of that and crushes it down into a full webserver with all of that included 3/4 of a single page of script.
It is a vast improvement, and simplification of the entire process.