I haven't used a server side framework (other than a few CouchDB server-side JavaScript features) for years. The biggest reason given for keeping a server side

I haven't used a server side framework (other than a few CouchDB server-side JavaScript features) for years. The biggest reason given for keeping a server side component around is that you need some way to serve up data to the UI. So until people converge on RESTful data stores there will continue to be a place for application-specific server side code.