In Memory of Deno

The piece reports that Deno, the developer-friendly JavaScript runtime, was acquired by Cloudflare and is slated to be shut down over the coming year. The author, a long-time developer, frames this as a personal loss: Deno’s combination of one-step script execution, browser-like sandboxed permissions, clear security defaults, portability, and an opinionated yet simple developer experience made it stand out among Python, Node, C++, Java and others. Concrete conveniences - running scripts without setup, the ability to execute remote scripts under strict permission control, and tools like Deno Deploy, Sandboxes and the Fresh framework - are highlighted as reasons the runtime became a favorite.

Despite deep adoption - the author’s team built a business and open-source libraries used by tens of thousands - the company behind Deno struggled with an unstable business model and the familiar trade-offs of VC-backed startups. Migration paths back to Node or to Bun are described as straightforward, minimizing lock-in. The author mourns the shutdown but emphasizes gratitude for Ryan Dahl and the team, arguing that Deno’s ideas and engineering influence will persist across the JavaScript ecosystem even after the runtime itself is retired.