It all started with this conversation. As I said, I'm pretty much a newbie and I don't even know what node-gyp does, but what I DO know is that it's a pain to run Windows and install a project with node-gyp as a dependency. Some numbers: 403 questions on stackoverflow (node-gyp windows) 224 issues mentioning "windows" It's bizarre that a nodejs developer needs to install visual studio (even the ex