Having just started learning about and using node, I read this release note and then this made me say to myself, "What the fuck?"
[15:39 user@host ~] > node -v
v0.10.25
[15:39 user@host ~] > node -v
v0.10.25
https://nodejs.org/en/download/releases/
Also, it's not unusual for project to totally jump versions - a notable example is Rake, which jumped from 0.9 to 10.0.
But yeah, it's semver so it's more "we've had 3 cycles of major breaking changes" than "it's a completely new product".
If you've started learning node, then it probably makes sense to follow the community portals and news too. In which case you'd known about io.js and the 4.x thing.
In other words, get into the whole project / community / culture.
If you just wanna learn something as a hobby, have fun, etc, then you don't have to do anything.
But knowing about the product, its community and its release roadmap is essential for anything you want to use to put something in production.
Actually it's essential for even considering to use this technology over another. And I wont even get into security and stability issues that a closer look at the project will make you aware of sooner.
Especially if you're just getting started and not using Node full time yet.
Could you elaborate on that? Which resources do you think would be useful to be followed to get into the culture and community?
2) Do some searching to see what alternatives exist. Even typing "alternative to Node.js" will give you some starting points. E.g. when you find out about NW.js and want to use it, it would pay to know that there's also Electron. If you learn there's this hot Angular thing, it should pay to also check React and Ember.
3) Also check how "alive" the project is. Things like GitHub followers, latest commits, release frequency, etc, will give you a sense of that. You don't have to go wild with this and (2) -- just check the 2-3 more prevalent projects in your niche. Again, if you don't what those are, a search like (2) will help. Or ask Quora or even HN.
4) Check the published roadmap.
5) If you want to get even close to the project community, most have an aggregator blog, or an official project blog. E.g. "Planet PHP" etc. There's also frequently mailing lists with links (e.g. Javascript Weekly). You can start reading whatever posts seem interesting to you -- soon you'll have a sense of what the key players are, what developments are coming, etc.
6) Check the relevant Reddit channel for the framework/project/language, or HN for stories on it.
The first 4 items don't take more than half a day to go through (of course you could spread them in a weekend or a whole week).
The (5) and (6) are more advanced, but still you can dip your toes slowly into them too -- a couple hours per week or so.
For more advanced involvement, you can go on irc and say hi to some devs and helpful volunteers. At later stages you can join their dev mailing lists, and even volunteer and help the project yourself.
[1] https://github.com/tj/n [2] https://github.com/creationix/nvm