I think the valid argument here would be that PHP is the cheapest/easiest option for most webmasters out there. When a normal person -- say an artist -- buys ho

I think the valid argument here would be that PHP is the cheapest/easiest option for most webmasters out there. When a normal person -- say an artist -- buys hosting, it isn't likely that he'll sit down and set up Python or Ruby. No, he'll upload a copy of Wordpress (on PHP) and be blogging in a couple of hours. That said, it's NOT true that Facebook still uses PHP because they get cheap developer power. See this Quora thread: http://www.quora.com/Why-hasn-t-Facebook-migrated-away-from-PHP?q=facebook+php http://www.quora.com/Why-hasn-t-Facebook-migrated-away-from-... From FB's former Director of Engineering: The reason Facebook hasn't migrated away from PHP is because it has incumbent inertia (it's what's there) and Facebook's engineers have managed to work around many of its flaws [...]