io.js

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial post by a random person from the community. I am not an official representative of io.js. Want to ask a question? open an issue on the node-forward discussions repo

io.js - what you need to know

io is a fork of node v0.12 (the next stable version of node.js, currently unreleased)
io.js will be totally compatible with node.js
the people who created io.js are node core contributors who have different ideas on how to run the project
it is not a zero-sum game. many core contributors will help maintain both node.js and io.js
io.js is not adversarial to node.js
the io.js project uses an open governance model
io is the 4th largest moon of jupiter. it also means 'input/output', which is what io.js is good at (asynchronous i/o)
'noders' is to node as 'ionians' is to io
you will probably be able to apt-get install iojs and get a node executable
the first release of io will be in January
the io team is working on an automated build infrastructure to enable a weekly release schedule
io core team (technical committee) meetings are on youtube
bugs etc fixed in node will be cherry-picked as necessary into io
still have questions? I'd suggest talking to both sides. Talk to a node.js core contributor and also talk to an io.js core contributor and draw your own conclusions.