... if the application was written recently. Get something from last year on your 'now' computer and let the suffering begin. Without a docker setup, I really find node horrible vs let's say .NET Core, Java/Closure or Go. But ymmv. A project I inherited has node_modules of 780MB with 150k files with many deprecated and vulnerable ones in them pinned versions: I would not call that easy. I never had that with .net: usually you need a few nugets and if you update them, they still work. That I would call easy. I have used both (and java for over 20 years) for 10+ years, I just do not like the ecosystem (or language but that is ok with typescript and purescript and cljs): I have to anyway.