Hate to burst your bubble, but "how revolutionary node.js is" has very little to do with anything. For example, Vert.x is a formalization (albeit a good one) of Netty-based practices we've been using for years in the Java ecosystem--I've got a "Vert.x prototype" in my projects graveyard and it's been there for years. Pretty much the same idea, though with a lot less love poured into it.

Don't get me wrong, I like Vert.x's API quite a lot and it's why I'm looking at using it. But it's not really "new", it just has a nicer coat of paint. And claiming that node.js is "revolutionary" because of it is a fairly criminal disservice to the ridiculously smart people behind Netty, Mina, and similar projects that have been around for a long time.