From: Francis Cianfrocca <garbagecat10@...>
Date: 2006-08-18T05:51:32+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby is exploding onto the scene as Java did at the end of 1990s

On 8/17/06, Charles O Nutter <headius@headius.com> wrote:
 > > Do you think Ruby offers that compelling business reason today?
>
>
> Without question. It needs to gain a little maturity, but that will only
> come with larger-scale use and onging research and development. I think now
> is the time.


And what do you think that compelling business reason is? In Java's
case, Sun used the sudden large-scale acceptance of Java as a
web-development system as a lever to drive an unbelievable amount of
hardware sales, until the bottom fell out in late 2000. (Please note
very carefully that "acceptance of Java for web-development" is far
from saying that the acceptance was justified or that Java is an
appropriate technology for web development. We're talking about
business drivers.)

Microsoft wants to maintain its monopoly platform. IBM is somewhat
confused: they think they want to sell more enterprise services but
that business is stagnant and they are rapidly devolving into a
pre-Gerstner style hodgepodge of product businesses that compete
violently against each other as well as with everyone else. To Oracle,
sales is a blood sport and they want to completely own every bit of
the enterprise computing stack in every company above a certain size.
Sun knows what business they are in, and they also know they need to
find a new business. Google is laser-focused on search, even though to
outside appearances they look like they just want to take over the
world.

How does Ruby help any of these players (or others) achieve their
business goals? (I'm not questioning that there may be a good answer
to this question, nor am I trying to start a flamewar. I do think it
could be helpful if we come up with the answers rather than waiting
for them to come from someone else.)