Am I the only one that thinks that Windows support was not really worth the time? Sure, you get to support a huge chunk of the OS market, but what are the real implications of Node running natively on Windows?
(AFAIK, MS doesn't have any server-side JS tooling similar to node at the moment. Very good chance that I'm wrong, though.)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms974588.aspx
I haven't seen it used anywhere as a server side application, though.
"Sure, you get to support a huge chunk of the OS market" <-- This is a big deal.
Most businesses run Windows. I want my Node.JS software to run on most business servers or workstations without requiring a VM or something. Same with most PCs.
The implication is that I can provide Node.JS-based software to an additional 400 million or so people. That means that I can write my software for Node.JS and not have to write a different version for Windows or ignore 400 million people.
For example, say I built an online database application builder type thing where users can build forms using drag and drop and configure database search screens and reports easily. What a lot of my users really want is to have complete control over their database and application. They don't want to have to rely on my server or their internet connection always being on to access their business data.
With good Windows support, I can build my application in Node.JS, and provide a setup bundle that users or IT people can use to install the user's database application on a Windows server.
Seems pretty obvious that this is a big advantage.
Not that that's a bad thing at all, but it would explain the seemingly unusual choice.
When Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange and Sharepoint run on on Linux we will know that has change happened.