Node.js

Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications - nodejs.org

Node is implemented around a Non-Blocking, Asynchronous I/O Event Loop, and a layer of file and network I/O libraries, built on top of the V8 Engine.

At it's heart it is a standalone JavaScript Virtual Machine. It supports developing servers and clients for any Network Protocol. Here is a great article on Node useage and popularity around the world - risingstack.com/

Node.js is an open source, cross-platform runtime environment for server-side and networking applications. Node.js applications are written in JavaScript, and can be run within the Node.js runtime on most platforms - wikipedia

Node.js provides an event-driven architecture and a non-blocking I/O API that optimizes an application's throughput and scalability. These technologies are commonly used for real-time web applications. Node Applications are often used for the real-time web - wikipedia

Of course you can just hit nodejs.org and get the new image, but luckily there is an easier way using npm- davidwalsh.name

The n package represents a Node helper, and running the last command upgrades node to the latest stable version. Instead of using "stable", you could specify a desired version:

Once your install is complete, you can confirm you version with another command:

Alternatively you can use Node Version Manager (NVM). It's a bash script that lets you download and manage different versions of node - github

Installation of NVM using curl is easy:

To install or update nvm, you can use the install script using cURL (but check github for any updates):

There is a separate project for nvm for windows - github