I guess I still am lost as to what frame of reference people are discussing here. What real host [1] doesn't let you run WSGI processes, or arbitrary processes? What happens if you need to make TCP connections, or run a websocket server?
[1] This does not include Dreamhost, Bluehost or any of the other oversold shared hosting (please, feel free to search G+ and see complaint after complaint about them, especially recently).
I guess I don't see any "real" sites being deployed in environments where only PHP is available. A random script that you want to let someone else use for a few minutes, sure, upload that to randomphphost.com, but a real life public webapp??
If you take the time to learn it, deploying C#, python, ruby apps can be insanely easy. And to be my usual self, deploying Golang apps are beyond insanely simple. (I cross compile from my Mac to my Linux 64bit target, upload and run `sudo ./server -host=:80` and I'm deployed).
Most people don't start writing Real Sites hosted at a Real Host. They start with a stupid little static home page as a hobby hosted for free by their ISP or a $2-3 a month hosting provider. Then they want to add just one dynamic feature (maybe include a header and footer for each page), and they're obviously not going to learn Python and work out what the hell a WSGI is and get a new, probably more expensive, hosting provider just for that, so they use PHP, because it's trivial and already included. Then they need another slightly larger, feature. Fortunately there exists an Open Source php project providing just that feature, so they drop it in and it kind of just works.
A few more features get added in this way over the next few month and years and all of a sudden the sites popularity explodes. Now they have a whole bunch of stuff to deal with, and rewriting the entire site in some other language they know nothing about is not on the top of their priority list.
I don't disagree that Python/Go/C#/Ruby represents a bigger upfront learning and potentially cost investment. I think it pays off in functionality, development speed and flexibility in the long run is all.
Well that's the thing... most of the PHP popularity is for the sites that get installed on Dreamhost etc.
I've deployed C# apps; I did .NET exclusively for about 8 years. It's great! But telling Joe's Washer Warehouse that they have to pay for the .NET stack, and that they can't just find a random PHP guy to do any further development is kind of tough pill to swallow.
Yes, PHP sites are usually the lowest common denominator, but on the other hand there are lots of people that are only willing to pay for that. There's a reason the PHP market is as big as it is. Thankfully for those of us in PHP-land there are starting to be lots of quality frameworks like Drupal and Symfony so that it's not such a horrible experience as it used to be.
And the other part is really the market. You want a large CMS-driven website? PHP is where it's at. That's where the code and communities are. There's a reason that lots of very large websites use Drupal. Sure, if I was going to try and make some sort of big-backend web app that did a lot of services and whatever, I'd want to do .NET. But as a freelance web developer, those projects just aren't there. Like it or not, I'm in PHP land.
(And RoR used to be a total nightmare to deploy. That whole community needs to send a collective giant cardboard check to the mod_passenger guy.)
[1] This does not include Dreamhost, Bluehost or any of the other oversold shared hosting (please, feel free to search G+ and see complaint after complaint about them, especially recently).
I guess I don't see any "real" sites being deployed in environments where only PHP is available. A random script that you want to let someone else use for a few minutes, sure, upload that to randomphphost.com, but a real life public webapp??
If you take the time to learn it, deploying C#, python, ruby apps can be insanely easy. And to be my usual self, deploying Golang apps are beyond insanely simple. (I cross compile from my Mac to my Linux 64bit target, upload and run `sudo ./server -host=:80` and I'm deployed).