It’s here! Just three days shy of exactly six months after we released v5.0.0, the Node.js Foundation is happy to announce that Node.js v6 is available and ready for use!
This new major version of Node.js delivers significant improvements in performance, reliability, usability and security. Module loading is nearly four times faster than in Node.js v4, tests and documentation have seen significant improvements, usability of the Buffer and File System APIs have been improved, and Node.js now supports 93% of ES6 language features, thanks to V8 version 5.0.
The Node.js Foundation says that the update brings a number of performance enhancements, including significantly faster module loading, better tests and documentation, as well as improved usability of its Buffer and File System APIs.
It’s worth noting that v6 is labeled as a ‘Current’ release, which means it’s intended for developers who want to try the latest features immediately and can upgrade to subsequent versions quickly.
For those who are still using Node.js v4, you can expect continued support until April 2017, as it’s a stable release with long-term support. Version 5 will be supported for another two months before users will have to transition to v6.
You can grab Node.js v6 here and find the release notes on this page.