There should be a clear distinction between Java web development (JSP), and GWT. I think this creates confusion with some. GWT compiles restricted Java code to

There should be a clear distinction between Java web development (JSP), and GWT. I think this creates confusion with some. GWT compiles restricted Java code to native Javascript. From an implementation perspective, it is not similar to JSP or JSF at all. When talking about "using Java", one should distinguish if they are talking about GWT because it is totally different. I agree with the reasons mentioned for not using GWT, with the exception of the loading process (this is no longer used in GWT 1.4) and the CSS/HTML argument. You could code your entire site in HTML/CSS if you wanted to, wrapping your HTML in HTMLPanels. That being said, I am not surprised that someone would switch from GWT to RoR. It really depends on what you need. I think for most applications, GWT is simply overkill. Sometimes people dont need to utilize RPC's or client side processing. Rails is so fast and elegant and you can reach desirable results quickly. And lots of people are simply tired of looking at Java syntax from their day jobs (I think this partly fuels the Java-hate). But I would argue that there are times when RoR is not the best choice. The application I'm working on would not be possible for me to build in RoR (realistically). It could be, but I would have to write entire RPC and event listener frameworks to handle the level of complexity required for the asynchronous components. I need bullet-proof debugging, a native Ajax environment, low-level server back-end control, and high-level RPC abstraction right out of the box. We'd like to internationalize this stuff too, and directly integrate iPhone support (loaded via user-defined properties). It is for this type of stuff that GWT is my tool of choice. Sometimes complicated tasks require leveraging tools a bit more complicated to get the job done...