[JeremyNT]

I think Ruby is really great at what it tries to do. The only "problem" with it is that python kind of sucked the air out of the room and ruby got shoved into a little niche.

These languages are really quite similar in many ways, but their domains ended up diverging. With python becoming the layman / scientific / learning language of choice, ruby has been pigeon holed into mostly web development.

Both are really easy to pick up and learn for somebody unfamiliar with CS concepts and I personally find the ruby syntax far more intuitive.

We have a lot more options now. For a while people tried to use python and ruby as glue / systems programming languages, but with golang and rust you have really good and more performant options in that space. And as you say the tooling has improved massively, so the hurdle of moving on to a more "rigid" language is less than it ever was.

I still really like ruby, and I think rails is still a powerhouse due to solving so many real world problems in a really complete package, but the lack of adoption outside of that niche has left it dwindling in popularity.

[mixmastamyk]

Python syntax is more intuitive for someone who initially learned C or Java, and for mainstream developers a point in its favor.