I have a hard time really seeing this as a net win. There are huge upsides to having the same language on both sides - but the big downside is that javascript simply isn't a very good backend language. Node.js/v8 is incredibly impressive for what it is. But it still has "shoehorned" written all over it. (For the record: I wouldn't consider Java the Language a pinnacle either.)

I agree that JavaScript isn't very good, but what are the alternatives !? I can not think of any language where a non-engineer with little computer science knowledge, can get productive withing minutes. And it only gets better the more you use it. For example, the other day I wanted to take a screen-shot of a web page, make a visual diff, then email me if something changed with the changes highlighted. I basically glued three different NodeJS modules together, and it took less then a hour. Try to do that in any other language.

> I can not think of any language where a non-engineer with little computer science knowledge, can get productive withing minutes.

That's a big misconception there. I absolutely don't mean this in an elitist way - and I completely agree that some degree of accessibility is a must - but this is in no way a benchmark for a good backend language. This is how we got PHP.

> [WebPage screenshot -> visual Diff -> send mail] > Try to do that in any other language.

I fail to see what's so difficult about this. I'd wager that in the "heavyweight stacks" you'd not even have to use modules outside the runtime libraries for a basic variant, and if you want to, you'd have them at your disposal.

Don't get me wrong, the large centralized ecosystem of NodeJS definitely is one of its biggest pluses.

But - and yeah, now I'm sounding a bit elitist and jaded - I've heard a variant of "It's so much simpler in X" or "Try that in anything else than X" too often when it only meant "I'm actually not really proficient in anything else but X".