Here’s a funny story. Years ago when 37signals came out with Basecamp, I decided I’d develop my own rival PHP version of the software because I didn’t like some of its features and design decisions at the time. I quickly grew obsessed with “beating” 37signals, to the point where I actually felt hostility towards them.

After quite a long time in code world, I came up with some software that was, eh, not so great. Score for 37signals. I ended up abandoning the project, but later used my expertise to develop an open source PHP 5 framework, Willowgarden, to compete with…ta da da dum…Ruby on Rails, also by 37signals. After another development cycle, which included a couple of public releases, I ended up taking that project offline to use only for private development. I’m quite proud of what I did in fact, and its being used for a couple production sites and is the base of a larger in-progress Web app.

But you know what? I give up. I’ve already been using Backpack for quite some time and have enjoyed reading the Signal vs. Noise blog and Getting Real book, so it’s time to put the last remaining vestiges of rivalry aside and plow into a new fun geeky venture: learning Ruby on Rails. I think it’s a great framework, and once I get over the learning curve of Ruby, I think it’ll be awesome. I do like PHP 5 a lot and hope Zend and co. continue to do well with PHP, but its flaws and shortcomings are beginning to wear on me. I think maybe my strong sense of clean design and an opinionated search for “a better way” may find a more comfortable home in the RoR camp. We’ll see…wish me luck!