Standard Installation

Step 1 : Install Node.js

1. 1.Visit the nodejs official website at nodejs.org (https://nodejs.org/)
2. 2.You will be presented with two buttons one for the LTS(Long Term Support)version and the other for the current version.
   
   Clicking on either will launch a download of nodeJS source code or a pre-built installer for your platform (Windows, macOS, or Linux).
   
   For beginners, the LTS (Long Term Support) version is recommended. However, if you wish to select a specific platform yourself, you can visit the download page here or by clicking the download button in the website’s header nav.
   
   Once you’re there, you can choose whichever option suits your use case.
3. 3.Once the download is complete, run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions.
   

Step 2: Verify the installation

Open your terminal or command prompt and type the following command to check if Node.js is installed:

node -v

As npm (Node Package Manager) comes bundled with Node.js, you don't need to install it separately.
After node installation is complete, npm is also installed automatically. To check the npm version, use the following command in your terminal:

npm -v

If both commands return version numbers, congratulations! Node.js is successfully installed.

You can also find the path to the node installation with this command;

which node

In my case produces the following :

You should get something similar, but most probably you will get different version numbers.

Installing NodeJs via a Package Manager

One very convenient way to install NodeJS is through a package manager. However in this case, each OS has its set of package managers. You can find some very popular ones for windows, Linux and macOS via this link https://nodejs.org/download/package-manager/

Here we are going to focus on a very popular, straightforward and easy to use package manager, NVM(Node Version Manager).

NVM is a POSIX-compliant bash script to manage multiple active nodeJS versions ie;

It allows you to quickly install and use different versions of node directly from terminal.

Installing and Updating NVM

To install or update nvm, you should run the install script. To do that, you may either download and run the script manually, or use the following cURL or Wget command:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

or

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

Running either of the above commands downloads a script and runs it. The script clones the nvm repository to ~/.nvm, and attempts to add the source lines from the snippet below to the correct profile file (~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.bashrc).

You may find more info or debug guidelines on their GitHub page, should you run into any issues while installing or updating your nvm package.

For a beginner, I personally argue that the most convenient way to install and manage nvm and many other dev tools is by using the popular package manager, `Homebrew`.

I know what you are thinking at this point.

What the heck, another installation 🤔? Trust me, it's much easier this way. Just, bare with me😅.

What does it do anyhow? Well, it installs the stuff you need that your mac (or your Linux system) didn’t have, effortlessly.

NB: `this section is for macOS and Linux users only.`

Installing Homebrew is straightforward. Run this commend below in a new terminal.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Once Homebrew is successfully installed, all that is left is to run the following command in your terminal;

brew install nvm

That’s it, told you! Pretty cool huh😎?

Now you may start playing around with different versions of nodeJS as needed. Here are a few commands you can try. Have fun!

$ nvm use 16
Now using node v16.9.1 (npm v7.21.1)
$ node -v
v16.9.1
$ nvm use 14
Now using node v14.18.0 (npm v6.14.15)
$ node -v
v14.18.0
$ nvm install 12
Now using node v12.22.6 (npm v6.14.5)
$ node -v
v12.22.6

In this series part, we focused on installing and setting up nodeJS for basic and generic use.

In the next part, we will discuss about how much JS (JavaScript) / TS (TypeScript) does one need to learn nodeJS