[Cthulhu_]

Node is nice, but maybe a bit verbose and the CLI utilities are a bit low-level. The main downside to Node is that you need an external runtime to run your applications.

But I guess the counter-downside to Go is that you need to compile different versions for different platforms; the binaries are not portable.

[pansa2]

> Go [...] binaries are not portable.

Maybe not, but Go has excellent support for cross-compilation. You can still support users on multiple platforms while only developing and building on one.

[eryb]

Binaries are obviously not portable, you can't run ARM binary on x86 and vice versa without emulation.

Unlike any other language Go lets you create binaries for almost all architectures and OS with a single command, you won't find this in any language.

[sagichmal]

> But I guess the counter-downside to Go is that you need to compile different versions for different platforms; the binaries are not portable.

Why is this a downside? Native binaries are the Platonic ideal for distributing applications.