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Question If I install node.js on my server do I need to install Ubuntu or another server OS?

Background: I'm creating a Droplet on Digital Ocean. I am going to use the droplet to host a website that will have a Discourse powered forum. When I create the droplet I have several options, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, Fedora, Debian, CoreOS and CentOS. I also have the option to install none of these. Should I install one of these OS? Or alternately does node.js do a good enough job by itself? Being new to node.js do I need something like NPM?

Bonus Point: Although I know HTML/CSS/Javascript I've always used GoDaddy in the past and I've never had to set up a server before.

DR01D
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2 Answers2

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Yes.

Node.JS needs Linux or FreeBSD. You can run it on other operating systems, but this is what Digital Ocean supports.

In Digital Ocean, you can choose CentOS, then after it is running, you can type:

yum install npm

This will install node, npm and some other related programs.

Nick
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node.js is not an operating system. You need something, be it Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu, etc) or Windows or BSD, but you probably just want to start with Ubuntu.

See this post for a good list of resources on getting started: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2353818/how-do-i-get-started-with-node-js

zymhan
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