vuepress: Installation instructions on VuePress home page don't work

Bug report

Version

Steps to reproduce

Follow instructions on home page: https://vuepress.vuejs.org/#as-easy-as-1-2-3

What is expected?

To see a working example.

What is actually happening?

If I install globally (as per the instructions) and try vuepress dev I get:

$ vuepress dev

 WAIT  Extracting site metadata...

 TIP  Temp directory: C:/Users/Youdaman/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/vuepress/node_modules/@vuepress/core/.temp
TypeError: Cannot read property 'endsWith' of null
    at loadTheme (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\@vuepress\core\lib\prepare\loadTheme.js:51:20)
    at AppContext.resolveTheme (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\@vuepress\core\lib\prepare\AppContext.js:264:32)
    at AppContext.process (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\@vuepress\core\lib\prepare\AppContext.js:72:16)
    at prepare (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\@vuepress\core\lib\prepare\index.js:15:20)
    at dev (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\@vuepress\core\lib\dev.js:23:25)
    at args (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\@vuepress\cli\index.js:120:14)
    at Command.program.command.description.option.option.option.option.option.option.action (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\@vuepress\cli\index.js:50:23)
    at Command.listener (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\commander\index.js:315:8)
    at Command.emit (events.js:182:13)
    at Command.parseArgs (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\commander\index.js:654:12)

If I try to install it locally (without -g) and run I get:

$ vuepress dev

 WAIT  Extracting site metadata...

 TIP  Temp directory: C:/Users/Youdaman/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/vuepress/node_modules/@vuepress/core/.temp

 TIP  Apply theme @vuepress/theme-default

 TIP  Apply plugin @vuepress/register-components (i.e. "@vuepress/plugin-register-components") ...

 TIP  Apply plugin @vuepress/active-header-links (i.e. "@vuepress/plugin-active-header-links") ...

 TIP  Apply plugin @vuepress/search (i.e. "@vuepress/plugin-search") ...
WebpackOptionsValidationError: Invalid configuration object. Webpack has been initialised using a configuration object that does not match the API schema.
 - configuration.output.path: The provided value "C:/Users/Youdaman/Desktop/vuepress-next-test/.vuepress/dist" is not an absolute path!
   -> The output directory as **absolute path** (required).
    at webpack (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\webpack\lib\webpack.js:31:9)
    at dev (C:\Users\Youdaman\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\vuepress\node_modules\@vuepress\core\lib\dev.js:95:20)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:68:7)

Other relevant information

• Your OS: Windows 10
• Node.js version: v10.7.0
• Is this a global or local install? Both.
• Which package manager did you use for the install? npm

I had previously installed vuepress without the @next suffix after reading the instructions in the docs (see https://vuepress.vuejs.org/guide/getting-started.html#global-installation) as per my previous issue here https://github.com/vuejs/vuepress/issues/903#issuecomment-427587953

I removed the old (0.14 I think) version before installing the new version globally. When I tried installing locally I used vuepress@next as per the instructions on the home page – easy to miss as they’re below the fold and there’s a big green button that says “Get Started” which takes you to the stale docs (click “Getting Started” in the sidebar nav after that) that have instructions to install vuepress and not vuepress@next.