[stephenr]

> I love the idea of user interfaces that provide little distractions from long-running (usually unavoidable) tasks.

Something like a java/c/etc compile on a large project is an unavoidable delay. And yet those tools don't offer to jingle some keys for you to make you feel like its quicker. They just do what they can to make the process as quick as possible.

Installation of packages that don't require compilation (e.g. decompressing files, moving them and possibly running some simple tasks) is not unavoidably slow. NPM is just a terrible package manager, and the community is in some kind of munchausen situation.