Unless chef and puppet are having a hard time finding developers, I don't see how javascript being more accessible is relevant.
Your point about them being over engineered is much more interesting than you just thinking we need yet another system but in a different language. And javascript is certainly not the only way to achieve the goals you list. Just seems like an attempt to start a language war honestly.
Chef, Puppet and configuration management systems in general aren't as widely used or known as one would think. So yes, I'd argue that using a more widely accessible language is relevant.
I agree that JavaScript isn't the only way to achieve this. It's just that JavaScript is a language I like, so I thought I'd find out if there were others who shared my views. Perhaps I should have expanded more on things in my first comment. That being said, I'm pretty surprised by the negativity in the comments and downvoting.
I'm confused, are you proposing using Javascript instead of a DSL with a system like Chef or Puppet?
That's a separate issue from what the system itself is written in...
The downvoting is probably over confusion, shared by myself, about what the language used to write the system itself has to do with the merits of the system.
Chef uses Ruby for recipes, I propose using JavaScript. If the system itself was written in JavaScript, then writing recipes in it would allow for more flexibility.
(EDIT: perhaps having the ability to define recipes using a JSON only format would work as well)
Your point about them being over engineered is much more interesting than you just thinking we need yet another system but in a different language. And javascript is certainly not the only way to achieve the goals you list. Just seems like an attempt to start a language war honestly.