> Life is definitely too short to not be using npm, browserify and React!
These are all cool things, but sometimes you want to simply make a web page without setting up node and npm and all that jazz.
Think of it this way... jQuery is like getting a subset of the most common functions you get by using in browserify, but without requiring a build step!
jQuery's imperative DOM manipulation is a horrible way to manage state compared to React.
These tools aren't just "cool things". They were designed to solve really pressing issues related to managing complexity in front-end web applications by eliminating global state in both the DOM or the JS runtime environment. They tend towards a more declarative and functional approach to system design.
A build process that integrates with a versioned package manager is fantastic.
> sometimes you want to simply make a web page without setting up node and npm and all that jazz
No, absolutely impossible. That would mean I'd have to actually write JavaScript instead of LiveScript and that would be unbearable... ;)
On a more serious note: yes, node is a bit of an overhead. It may be too much for very simple, one-off projects, but it starts making sense as soon as the project becomes even a little bit more complex.
These are all cool things, but sometimes you want to simply make a web page without setting up node and npm and all that jazz.
Think of it this way... jQuery is like getting a subset of the most common functions you get by using in browserify, but without requiring a build step!