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Nowhere near the same. When Ruby was just becoming popular, any Rails developer could have said "This language is crap, I'm going to go write my web app in PHP/

• jasonlotito 14y ago
  > Now try the same thing as Obj-C was just becoming popular: "This language is crap I'm going to go write my iOS app in..." Java wasn't the only way to write apps, but Sun pushed it. And people followed. C# wasn't the only way to write apps, but MS pushed it. And people followed. Ruby wasn't an option until after 37 Signals put it out there and said "This is how you write web apps." And people followed. > Now try the same thing as Obj-C was just becoming popular: "This language is crap I'm going to go write my iOS app in..." You have Titanium, which uses JavaScript, and you have PhoneGap, which leverages existing web technologies. You have Adobe Air or Flash or whatever, which you can use to build apps with. You can use Ruby. The point is, these languages didn't become popular on their own. Maybe Ruby is the one most unlike the others, but still, I don't think anyone could seriously make the case that had not Rails appeared, Ruby would still be what it is today.