npm is the default package manager for Node.js. It consists of a command line client that integrates with a remote registry, and it makes it easy to install, share and distribute code.

If you're using npm installed from a repository in Linux (like the official Ubuntu or Node.js repositories), you may have noticed that you can't install packages globally ("-g") as a regular user. Many websites mention installing npm packages using sudo, but this messes up some permissions and is not recommended.