Node is so easy to install manually. I like doing it this way too because it's really easy to switch versions.
This is also great because you don't need to add some external package repository to apt, and you don't have to wait for those repositories to update when node releases a new version. You can get updates as soon as they're released.
# make a `~/.nodes/ folder
mkdir -p ~/.nodes && cd ~/.nodes
# download the binaries from nodejs.org
# in this case, here's the linux version
curl -O http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.12/node-v0.10.12-linux-x64.tar.gz
# extract
tar -xzf node-v0.10.12-linux-x64.tar.gz
# rename folder to 0.10.12
mv node-v0.10.12-linux-x64 0.10.12
# create a `current` symlink
ln -s 0.10.12 current
# prepend ~/.nodes/bin to your path
# you'll want to save this in ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc or something
export PATH="~/.nodes/current/bin:$PATH"
# cleanup
rm ~/.nodes/node-v0.10.12-linux-x64.tar.gz
The best part about this is you can repeat the pattern for any other version of node, change the current symlink at any time to switch which version you're running, and you're good to go
% node --version
v0.10.12
% npm --version
1.2.32
# switch versions to (e.g.) 0.10.5
% cd ~/.nodes && rm current && ln -s 0.10.5 current
% node --version
v0.10.5
% npm --version
1.2.18
Additional pointers when writing executable scripts
Make an executable file
% touch ~/somefile && chmod +x ~/someifle && nano ~/somefile
File contents
#!/usr/bin/env node
console.log(process.version);
Run it
% ./somefile
v0.10.12
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