My theory: writing network servers that are not web servers is a relatively uncommon problem to have these days. One of the hardest parts about learning a new

My theory: writing network servers that are not web servers is a relatively uncommon problem to have these days. One of the hardest parts about learning a new language is coming up with a learning project that showcases the unique strengths of the language without being intimidating to a newcomer or too contrived to actually be useful. This is difficult in any language, but it's especially so in Erlang. Obviously "it's different; people don't like things that are different" has a lot to do with it, but we've seen other FP languages experiencing faster growth recently, so I don't think that can be the only cause. I've been using it for a few months, for what it's worth. Edit: obviously there are lots of people who need to write concurrent network server clusters, but I'd argue that the benefits of the Erlang approach are difficult to grasp before you've actually deployed something written in Erlang; simple toy projects (which are a prerequisite to learning a language) don't usually play to its strengths. A language that's really good at web apps is going to grow more quickly simply because its advantages are easier to appreciate from the start.