The future of NPM seems to have worried many people, both as a company and as a package manager that most people know from Node.js.
More than 11 million JavaScript developers use npm (and the associated registry ) to build their applications, whether they use Node.js or not.
For those who don't know, the npm Inc. subsidiary has been in a period of turmoil over the past year given the potential departure of Bryan Bogensberger, the company's CEO, which has caused quite a stir among employees.
According to Schlueter, the company's CTO, npm started as a side project. One of the earliest and most active contributors to Node.js, Schlueter eventually took over the leadership of Node.js and developed it. The package manager started as a core part of Node.js, and over time it became the package manager for all of JavaScript.
This led to the founding of npm, Inc. in 2014.
Despite the company's growth, when Schlueter decided to take on venture capital, the developers began to worry about future resources. There is still concern about the issue today.
Schlueter emphasized that the capital increase allowed them to develop marketing and finance the experiment for a longer period of time. Clearly, the company has been in an experimental stage for the past two years.
Although the company wants to remain focused on its approach of keeping registration free, it is also looking for ways to support all of this.
“The most successful products we’ve built have been the ones where our community has embraced it,” Schlueter said. The key for npm, Inc., he continued, is to “follow business patterns and try to make it easier for developers to use npm. Even though developers won’t pay for these conveniences, that’s a way for the company to grow.”
As for the company's new products, the future of npm is still uncertain. The company has built an impressive test security software.
Schlueter also remains committed to helping the JavaScript developer community understand how to keep their work open source.
Finally, he adds that perhaps the best of npm is yet to come.
