Since lately folks have been attacking the people instead of their arguments I also have to preface my comment. I am a full time Rails Developer. So here we go

Since lately folks have been attacking the people instead of their arguments I also have to preface my comment. I am a full time Rails Developer. So here we go... If you want to produce free-as-in-whatever code that runs on virtually every server in the world with zero friction or configuration hassles, PHP is damn near your only option. That is the crux of this whole debate summed up in one beautiful sentence. I almost cried. Until someone builds a better solution, where better includes as easy or easier to setup on than php. Php is going to be the defacto standard. And for the love of God please don't say well all you have to do install Blub then configure foo server and... You've already failed to be easier to get started on than with php. And if you want php to go away you have to do just that. Where do I install Blub? What happens when there are 30 different servers that can run it which one do I pick? Why? What are the trade offs? Version Y is on the website but everyone really uses version X because the the dependencies haven't been up dated to Y yet. And the major framework just had a huge fork/merge/catfight and now its future is uncertain ... Fuck it I can pay Shithost $5 a month for php and I can toss a few variables in this html <insert wysiwyg editor> crapped out. Your average person who needs something to show up on a website and lets be very clear if you want to see php go away these are the people you need to go after does not care about: - lambdas - good language design - namespacing etc, they don't read Jeff Attwood, Hacker News or any of that. One thing the php community as a whole has always focused on is ease of getting started. Take Wordpress. The 5 minute install? That gets up an running an allowing me to do what I care about (getting my client's content on the internet) I still use it long after converting to other languages for most development. If you can't compete with that it does not matter how many templating languages or css precompilers or what the hell ever you got. You don't stand a chance. TL, DR: Long Story Short. php and its children make it easy to drop in and play. Thats what you are up against. Not language design beauty/ purity or features. Ease of getting started. Because honestly the only people who care enough to switch are people who care enough to overcome that in other languages.