I'm launching a website soon and am trying to consider which platforms would be best to launch off of. I'd like to find out what platforms some of the other popular Web 2.0 services (e.g., Digg, Reddit, Traineo, Flickr, Odeo, YouTube, all the social networking sites, etc.) are running on? MySQL/PHP? Ruby on Rails? .NET? If there's a site out there that lists this I'd love to know. Thanks!
youtube is apache,php. Actually, I bet most of these are apache + php because it's cheap, reliable, and ModRewrite baby! Making SEO Safe Folders is a breeze and can't be done as easily with others.
Many are starting to branch out with Ruby on Rails. I'd personally check that one out. I'm starting to learn it myself. meetup.com uses RoR i think.
I have heard some concerns anecdotally that while Ruby is a very easy platform to develop on that it might not scale as well as some other platforms. I can't think of a truly huge site that uses RoR and the fact that MySpace decided to go with .NET instead of RoR when they moved away from Cold Fusion is kinda interesting. The fact that YouTube is php is encouraging as that's what I'm leaning towards right now.
I just read about one yesterday, but can't find it again. But they are coming. RoR is sickeningly easy Ohdontforget.com is one I just found on digg
Coldfusion is an easy Serverside "Starter" language - a good transistion between html and programming. .NET was the correct move for MySpace. If you need constant changing then CF is not the correct route. ROR I heard good things about but I wouldn't choose it over .NET, Especially 2005!