i'm having a big debate with a friend of mine in what to use for developing a very sexy website. I go for .net, he goes for Ruby, actually i checked out some tuts and video, it's pretty cool. and it's free, .net is bloody expensive.

Anyone used Ruby? It's a pretty new language. I think it's going to have a bright future.

(i wont make a poll because it's pointless)

I know a few people that completely swear that Ruby is the next big thing, and I tend to think it is as well. I dont have any personal experience with it, but from what I've heard, it's the way to go. Plus, it's free, what do you have to lose?

Mono is making some good strides on providing a .NET platform on Linux. They're still on .NET 1.1 but inching towards .NET 2.0.

As far as expenses. For learning purposes, you can get Visual Studio .NET Express. Those are free and turns your computer into a mini webserver (unfortunately with IIS 5.5).

I've worked with ASP.NET in C# and I like it a lot. I have a MVC framework right out of the box. With stuff like PHP, I have to make it. I don't have benchmarks on how fast ASP.NET is compared to PHP or RoR.

or Code Igniter (effectively it's PHP on Rails), Django (Python on Rails), JSP+Spring/Hibernate (JSP on Rails).

I've played around with Code Igniter and it's really nice, it also has excellent documentation.

Just make sure you understand, Ruby is a programming language just like any other, Rails is the magical web development framework and similar frameworks exist in pretty much any language. So if you already know PHP you should really go for a PHP MVC like Code Igniter or Cake.

I haven't used the first two but .net from what I've seen has no negative issues, possibly some memory overhead but other than that I love it.

PHP for my vote. But that's more or less because its stupidly easy and I only know it :p

Visual Studio 2005 is the most frustrating IDE I've ever had to work with. I don't know if it's because our IT department can't get the settings right, or if it just comes this ****ed up normally. We can't use our networked drive, we can't use "End" to end a VB.NET program, and it will randomly refuse to compile because of something as simple as an InputBox.

Right now, anything but .NET for web development.

Ruby is going to be my next language of choice. I really like the syntax and Rails is just icing on the cake.

Perhaps this is your problem.

Not really, but thanks anyway.

There are a few quirks with the GUI designer that require a bit of experience, but the rest is to me. VS2005 is an excellent IDE.

ASP.NET and RoR or Rails with other languages would all be very good choices. If your servers will be Linux, then Rails may be a better alternative. If it's Windows 2003, ASP.NET, because on that platform, ASP.NET will kick *** and take names.

Also, .NET is free. You can get the Express versions of Visual Studio 2005 for free. They're basically the same as the retail, except some more advanced (read: seldom used, and I'm not even sure about that) features might be gimped, and you can't mix languages in one solution file.

Bottom line, developing in any .NET language is completely free. The compilers have always been free, it's just been lack of IDEs. MonoDevelop and SharpDevelop (one is a fork of the other) are great open source IDEs for the Mono and .NET platforms respectively. But since the Express editions of VS, it's hard to find a good reason for them.

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]PHP for my vote. But that's more or less because its stupidly easy and I only know it :p[/QUOTE]

Yes, PHP FTW!