Matt DeBergalis has released version 1.1 of Meteor, announcing support for both Windows and MongoDB 3.0.
The release "adds first-class official support" for developing applications software on Microsoft Windows, DeBergalis said, adding that it is the start of "a commitment to developers on the Microsoft platform."
He said:
Our Windows changes go beyond just the basics of developing a Meteor apps on a Windows computer. We've taken care to make sure teams with a mix of development platforms can collaborate on an app; a single Meteor codebase will work unchanged on any combination of Windows, OS X, and Linux computers.
We've added Windows machines to our build farm, so package authors — on any platform — can publish their libraries for Windows developers right alongside the builds for OS X and Linux. And you get all your favorite parts of the Meteor toolchain on Windows, including the
meteor mongodatabase tool,meteor shell, and access to our free application hosting servers usingmeteor deploy.
Except for building mobile apps with PhoneGap/Cordova, Meteor on Windows supports all features available on Linux and Mac. In addition, the meteor admin get-machine command now supports an additional architecture, and os.windows.x86_32, used to build binary packages for Windows.
The Meteor command line prompt can be run from PowerShell or Command Prompt.
Ry Walker, co-founder of venture studio Differential and presenter of The Meteor Podcast spoke to InfoQ about the updates. "As with any network effects product, Meteor becomes stronger the larger the community, and both Windows and MongoDB 3.0 are big moves to attract more developers," Walker said.
He continued:
The biggest challenge facing Meteor is breaking through the barrier that any newer technology faces, that it’s not been tested at high scale enough to put enterprise CTOs at ease. MongoDB 3.0 with WiredTiger promises 7x performance improvement in database writes, and we’re excited to see how that affects the performance of Meteor apps as result.
Windows support opens up a huge community of developers who haven’t gone Mac or Unix: it’s a lot more than you’d guess by visiting a coffee shop in a startup neighborhood.
Following the recent release of MongoDB 3.0, Meteor 1.1 now supports both 3.0, as well as the older 2.6, and currently ships with 2.6 as the default MongoDB engine.
Kelly Stirman, vice-president of strategy at MongoDB, said it was "fantastic" to see the community embrace MongoDB 3.0. Stirman said the company was "seeing a rich ecosystem of community-built platforms that help users take advantage of the significant improvements built into 3.0," with Meteor serving as "a great example" for how developers are building modern applications faster than ever.
Available for the first time as an official distribution on the Windows operating system, Meteor 1.1 supports Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2012. A native installer includes all the key parts of the Meteor SDK, including Windows-specific Node.js binaries and the MongoDB database engine.
Meteor released version 1.0 back in October, and has since become one of the top ten most-starred projects on GitHub.