[crgwbr]

That's clearly not the case. Sure, other event-based web frameworks exist, but Node definitely makes it easier than ever to write event-based apps. Additionally, being able to share code between the server and client is a very interesting and useful feature. Finally, Javascript is unlike really any other language in existence. It has many of the benefits of a functional language, without being nearly as intimidating as something like Haskell. Node certainly has its place.

[freshhawk]

Ease of novice development is definitely a worthy goal and a valuable niche to carve out (like PHP).

But there will be backlash if too many of those novice supporters go overboard in their enthusiasm without any experience to put it in context.