[madawan]

Ruby is just "gem install rails", but IMO this discussion is misguided: initial setup time doesn't make much difference in the long run. If we're talking "how easy can a user get started", JavaScript wins by far. But that doesn't mean I'd recommend people using it.

[pbowyer]

I disagree with you - "gem install rails" is setting up Rails, but not what I was talking about: hosting the result.

I wonder if PaaS providers like Heroku would have taken off so quickly if Rails apps had been easy to set up the hosting for? It would explain their popularity outside the PHP community.