Dan, I actually completely agree with Buckman’s point about using PHP. Rails is popular and trendy but I think there’s still more talent in PHP, especially affordable talent. I also have watched a lot of companies run into issues with scaling Rails. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m in no position to take a strong slant on this clearly religious issue. So please don’t take my word as a completely informed one, but we did build AwayFind in PHP and I found the depth of resources (both people and literature/code libraries) to be encouraging. However, one of the reasons we stuck with PHP is because we simply had existing experience with it.

Both languages are good places to go, and one is not “better” than the other. Then again, depending on the application one may be :-).

Cheers!

I’m curious if you agree with Buckman’s endorsement of PHP. Jobmatchbox’s recent poll indicates D.C.-area startups prefer Ruby on Rails to PHP by a margin of nearly 4 to 1. Others, including Derek Sivers (cdbaby.com), swear by PHP. I don’t use either, yet, but plan to learn one or the other…

Jobmatchbox post: http://jobmatchbox.com/wordpress/archives/217
Sivers post: http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2007/09/7_reasons_i_switched_back_to_p_1.html

@ bullet #2…

I recently read an blog post about a speech given by Amazon investor Nick Hanauer called “How to Spot a Breakthrough”. Nick touches on this point, but he has a different opinion:

“As for social disruption, Hanauer gave a quick summary of what he meant:

—If everyone thinks it’s a great idea, it probably sucks.
—If people understand it, you’re too late.
—If people don’t like it and don’t understand it, it probably still sucks.”

I guess there is a difference between “social disruption” and “business idea”, but disruptive breakthroughs, as Nick puts it, are the businesses most likely to become runaway hits. Otherwise, you’re just stealing market share from an existing market, as opposed to creating a new market altogether.

Here is the blog post:
http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/12/03/how-to-spot-a-breakthrough-tips-from-early-amazon-investor-nick-hanauer/