The JavaScript foundation and the Node.js foundation recently announced an intent to merge their foundations to be able to serve their broad communities.

“As the ecosystems for the JavaScript foundation continues to evolve, increased collaboration is very important to sustain continued and healthy growth.” - JS Foundation

The JS foundation which was established in 2016 and the Node.js Foundation which was established in 2015, are the two main open-source foundations that focus solely on JavaScript. Both the foundations are of the belief that there needs to be tighter integration between both, to enable greater support for Node.js and a broader range of JavaScript projects.

JavaScript is one of the most widely used core, high-level programming language of the World Wide Web (WWW). It was traditionally used to run on the client’s browser, as a client-side scripting language, to make the webpage work dynamically. It is an ever evolving and scaling language and is currently being used for creating JavaScript applications to run on the web, desktop and mobile too. JavaScript engines are now being embedded in other types of software like web servers, pdf, databases and in other run-time environments.

Node.js is an open-source, JavaScript run-time environment which is used to execute the JavaScript code outside the client’s browser. That means it is used to run scripts on the server-side to create dynamic content before the page is sent to the client’s web browser. Node.js can also be used to write Command Line tools and Server-Side Scripting. It has an event-driven architecture which facilitates asynchronous input/output. Node.js is increasingly becoming more popular among developers and programmers and is one of the top JavaScript frameworks in 2018.

It is said that the technical independence or autonomy for Node.js or any other JS Foundation projects like jQuery, Mocha, JerryScript, WebDriverIO, Appium, etc. will not be affected by this alliance. 

Node.js + JS Foundation Merger: What to Expect?

The speculated goals of this merger are to:

1. Facilitate more collaborations all over the JavaScript Ecosystem and affiliated standards bodies
2. Bring enhanced operational excellence to the community
3. Generate a single, clear hub, accessible by any project in the JavaScript ecosystem.
4. Present a more streamlined member engagement
5. Become an “umbrella” project structure, to facilitate stronger associations across all JavaScript projects

Though the merger is only in its discussion stage at the moment, there have been many speculations on how this merger will affect the JavaScript and the Node.js community. Some people believe it will bring more and better things in the future, while others feel that this merger might hamper the development of some of the JavaScript projects.

Although, according to statistics, in the current years, JavaScript has an active user base of about 10 million while Node.js has a steadily growing active user base of 4 million. Also, most of the Node.js users use JavaScript as one of the main languages for programming. Hence, the only thing that can be said with conviction is that the merger between these foundations will be affecting many users worldwide.