Node.js and JS Foundation announce intent to merge; developers have mixed feelings

Yesterday, the Linux Foundation announced that the Node.js Foundation and JS Foundation have agreed to possibly create a joint organization. Currently, they have not made any formal decisions regarding the organizational structure. They clarified that joining forces will not change the technical independence or autonomy for Node.js or any of the 28 JS Foundation projects such as Appium, ESLint, or jQuery.

A Q&A session will be held at Node+JS Interactive from 7:30 am to 8:30 am PT, October 10 at West Ballroom A to answer questions and get community input on the possible structure of a new Foundation.

Why are Node.js and JS Foundations considering merging?

The idea of this possible merger came from a need for a tighter integration between both foundations to provide greater support for Node.js and a broader range of JavaScript projects.

JavaScript is continuously evolving and being used for creating applications ranging from web, desktops, and mobile. This calls for increased collaboration in the JavaScript ecosystem to sustain continued and healthy growth.

What are the goals of this merger?

Following are few of the goals of this merge aimed at benefiting the broad Node.js and JavaScript communities:

To provide enhanced operational excellence

Streamlined member engagement

Increased collaboration across the JavaScript ecosystem and affiliated standards bodies

This “umbrella” project structure will bring stronger collaboration across all JavaScript projects

With a single, clear home available for any project in the JavaScript ecosystem, projects won’t have to choose between the JS and Node.js ecosystems.

Todd Moore, Node.js Board Chairperson and IBM VP Opentech, believes this merger will provide improved support to contributors:

“The possibility of a combined Foundation and the synergistic enhancements this can bring to end users is exciting. Our ecosystem can only grow stronger and the Foundations ability to support the contributors to the many great projects involved improve as a result.”

How are developers feeling about this potential move?

Not many developers are happy about this merger, which led to a discussion on Hacker News yesterday. One of the developers feels that the JS Foundation has been neglecting their responsibility towards many open source projects. They have also seen a reduction in funding and alienated many long-time contributors. According to him, this step could be “a last-ditch effort to retain some sort of relevancy.”

On the other hand, one of the developers feels positive about this merge:

“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.”

What we think of this move?

This merger, if it happens, could unify the fragmented Javascript ecosystem bringing some much-needed relief to developers. It could also bring together sponsor members of the likes Google, IBM, Intel, and others to support the huge number of JavaScript open source projects. We must add that we find this move as a reaction to the growing popularity of Python, Rust, and WebAssembly, all invading and challenging JavaScript as the preferred web development ecosystem.

If you have any questions regarding the merger, you can submit them through this Google Form provided by the two foundations.

Read the full announcement at the official website of The Linux Foundation and also check out the announcement by Node.js on Medium.

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