As someone who did nothing but Rails since 06 (two Rails-powered startups, plus some Rails contracting), allow me to explain why I dumped Ruby/Rails and switched to Python/Pylons.<p>Batteries. Ruby is great, but outside of Rails you are on your own. Even basic things like geometry needs to be coded by hand. Python (and almost anything else) simply destroys Ruby when it comes to generic non-web centric libraries. And the situation isn't changing: most new Ruby "libraries" are just add-ons to Rails, seriously, how many Rails unit testing frameworks, paginators and file upload handlers do we need?<p>People. Python hackers are much, much nicer folks to hang around with. I don't like to start a war here so I'll refrain from going further with this point. Besides, I feel like Zed Shaw said it all.