Nodejs 8 has been graduated to LTS (Long Term Support) status and newer Nodejs 9 has become the new current release.
Nodejs Release Plan
Lets first understand how Node puts its version in the LTS status. Nodejs follows the semantic versioning. As per the new semver – major releases of Node.js are cut from the master branch after every six months. Even-numbered versions are cut in the month of April, i.e., v4, v6, v8, v10 etc. Odd-numbered versions are cut in the month of October, i.e., v5, v7, v9 etc.
Whenever an odd-numbered major release is cut, the previous even-numbered major version transitions to the Long Term Support plan.
Major version in the LTS plan is actively maintained for a period of 18 months from the inception date. After the completion of 18 months of active support, the major version will transit into “maintenance” mode for another 12 months.
Node.js 8.9.0 is the first official Node.js 8 release to hit LTS status
NodeJS 8 LTS
Node.js 8 is one of the biggest release lines from the Node.js community to date with features and add-ons like Async / Await and V8 JavaScript Engine 6.1.
Look at some of the awesome features we can find in Nodejs 8.9.0.
- The latest Nodejs 8 version is equipped with V8 JavaScript Engine 6.1.
- HTTP/2 is in experimental mode and is no longer behind flags. Once it will be out of experimental mode, it will help developers to use the new protocol to speed up the application development.
- Node.js API (N-API) a stable module API is available as an experimental feature in Node.js 8.9.0.
- Async / Await are fully supported in Node.js 8.9.0
NodeJS 9 Current Release
As per the Node.js Release plan, they have released the newer Node.js V9 (9.0.0) for the developers who like to test and experiment. This new release is focussed on adding and testing new features and is frequently updated. Therefore it is not advisable / recommended to use this version in production.
This new release involves bulk of changes such as:
- Deprecation or Removal of legacy APIs.
- Core Codebase is slowly getting migrated to new error system.
Please check the Node.js page for the download/upgrade to these releases.