We started in php4 and quickly switched over to RoR. It made sense from a practical and financial standpoint to build web apps in half the time. But when server problems started to occur that only the “rails developer” could fix – I started paying close attention to the language direction we would go. The server resource issues seemed bearable as long as everyone was aware. When my non-programming employees who were so used to maintaining websites in php had to keep jerking the rails programmer around to make small tweaks or update static content – I knew something was wrong. So the up front savings and profit was lost quickly when I realized the long-term headaches and draw backs. Another interesting note was that some of the Rails programmers and contractors with the exception of a small few – seemed to be more advanced at first, but lacked in experience and high level security. We had more bugs and errors that were “hidden” by some of these guys then it was worth. After about 10 Rails projects (of which several became nightmares) I switched the company back to object oriented php. We’re all php5 now and loving life again.

Not trying to scare you rails folk – but take a close look. I’m glad I’m not alone. For what it’s worth.

How Ruby on Rails Could Be Much Better
No True “mod_ruby” Is Damaging Ruby’s Viability On The Web
The deal with shared hosts

I didn’t mean to “bash” anything – that’s the funny thing. In fact I mentioned from the get-go that I love Rails. In fact I’ll go as far as to say that I think I’ve exposed more .NET developers to Rails than anyone else (blog posts, webcast tutorials, etc).

It was discouraging to see the negativity – but it wasn’t all that bad really. I deleted a few comments that got out of control. What stuck with me, however, is how unwilling people were to question the leadership (and instead call me names). Isn’t that the whole “Rails Thing” anyway (being rebellious)?

It’s sort of Lord of the Flies-y in some ways, but I think it will even out as people are beginning to flex the Open Source aspect of it all. It should be interesting to see what happens.

Rails “changed the game” and I think, for those using/working on it regularly, it would be good to always maintain your critical eye and professional discipline.

Anyone who thinks your going to have an easy ride when your site targets all users on the internet and gets popular, is not thinking straight. It’s hard regardless of the web framework you choose. It’s just easier to blame the framework than admit your lack of planning. I don’t understand why they do not just simply come out and say we are having growing pains. Enough said, easy answer, no need to spread blame.

If you prefer ease of use, then it makes sense to choose a language you enjoy working with. Not necessarily Ruby or Rails. Then over time improve the performance of the language to an acceptable level within the boundaries of what you are trying to accomplish. When you become an expert in any language you will always find problems and issues you disagree with. If it’s open source, stop complaining and help fix it. Don’t wait for someone to approve on your idea. Just do it and put it out there. More do less talk. But they also have a right to say, we don’t like your idea, go away. No one can claim they are perfect and their way is the only way unless it’s your project and your leading it.

Even with Zed’s rant, I still thank him for his support. But his expectation that the community is somehow at fault for his life problems is way out of place. He seems very angry at his life choices and I have no doubt he will explode against his next community of choice after he gets too involved and doesn’t get his way. But that’s ok, you just have to be tolerant of people like that. The exist in all communities.

His rant in no way affects my decision to keep using ruby and rails. There are other interesting ways out there to boost performance regardless of the web framework, and you should be thinking about them no matter which web framework your using, even .NET and Java stuff… Squid? ESI? Memcached? Vertical Scaling, Horizontal Partitioning? These are problems you will have to deal with no matter what route you go if your wildly successful.

Regarding the CD Baby issue, wow I think that is way overblown. I don’t recall ever being giving the real scoop on that as to what the obstacles actually were. Another easy way to just blame the framework when you decide you just preferred working with php :) How does it take a man 2 years of development to decide it’s not working out………… Needs to rethink his development process itself, not his language or web framework.

@Dave – I doubt that this is the end of Rails… Even though the Twitter developer talks about the growing pains of using Rails, this has not stopped Twitter’s tremendous growth.

One other note that I wish I include but was not immediately appropriate was that I wish that Google just give Zed a freaking cash award or something. Google goes around giving money away to open source contributions and I can’t find a nicer guy than Zed to nominate for some kind of Google Open Source Award or something. That is just a thought since I don’t work at Google.

I you read the Derek’s post you will understand that his switching back to PHP had more to do going with his own strengths. In fact at the very end of his posts he writes:

“Ok. All that being said, I’m looking forward to using Rails some day when I start a brand new project from scratch, with Rails in mind from the beginning.”