I didn't argue anything about performance. Go might have better performance than Node.js, but that doesn't make Go better for cross-platform distribution! They are separate factors. If performance is your top priority and Go has better performance than Node.js then choose Go while acknowledging that it's possible that Node.js has better cross-platform code distribution support.
>user interface
I didn't make any arguments about that either.
>required runtime environment
Now that's relevant when it comes to cross-platform distribution. Node.js has that covered pretty well.
>I'm not trying to take anything away form Javascript / Node, but it loses as many points as it wins
My comment was not about Node.js vs Go as a whole, it was about developing cross-platform software.
>So I think the issues of different files for different OSs is overstated anyway.
If you look at the core issue here, it's that theoretically speaking "all things equal" Go and Node.js needs about as much work to implement a new feature that works with most platforms. However, on top of that Go requires a compilation step for every supported platform, and that's not required for Node.js.
However, Node.js requires someone to compile the Node.js environment for each supported platform. For most cases that's already done.
This is my core argument that Node.js does cross-platform development better. It's one of the things that Java and C# got right.