Javascript: Github takes over NPM – Golem.de

The well-known code hoster Github announces the acquisition of NPM in its corporate blog. The latter operates the registry of the same name for Javascript packages and maintains the tool of the same name for managing the Javascript packages in software projects. NPM itself describes the purchase in its announcement as “Next phase assembly”, that is roughly the next phase of the collaboration and plays with the widely-repeated reinterpretation of the abbreviation NPM, which originally stood for Node Package Manager.

As both companies affirm, the previously available package archive, the so-called registry, should remain available free of charge. NPM’s paying customers will also continue to be able to use their private registries. In the long term, however, Github plans to own service for package sources merge with NPM.

After the takeover, Github also wants to explicitly invest in the registry infrastructure, so that it “fast, reliable and scalable” remains. The code hoster also wants to improve the daily user experience of the service and the command line client, which should primarily benefit developers and maintainers. Publishing packages and handling two-factor authentication (2FA) should also be explicitly improved. With the upcoming changes, the developer community will also be heavily involved in decisions, Github promises.

The takeover of NPM comes as no surprise, after all, the company has been in crisis for about a year. For example, former NPM employees as well as developers from the community own competitor products to NPM in prospectthat were created out of dissatisfaction with the company. The management of the company is also direct, according to media reports against employee lawsuits and the Management of NPM has changed several times in the past year.

The fact that Github is now buying NPM is probably due to the huge user community of the two services, which probably has a very large intersection. In addition, Github already offers a similar service, which should probably ensure synergies.

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