[TylerE]

Don't see how Django apps are really any different from Ruby Gems/Plugins.

Furthermore, ActiveRecord is much less tied into Rails core than the Django ORM is to Django.[1]

[1] - Yes, you technically can not use the ORM, but then you don't get the Django Admin, which, frankly, is the only thing Django has over many other Python web frameworks.

[pekk]

Ruby gems are like Python packages. Django apps are very often not installable as Python packages.