> "dirt cheap VMs" doesn't make PHP installation
> any easier compared to a hosting provider
This is easy, even for a beginner:
yum install java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel
Consider the effort that a PHP developer has to put into editing the vhost of the Apache config. And usually the php.ini file needs to be tweaked. And often there is an .htaccess file with a few mod_rewrite rules (think of WordPress, Drupal, etc) There might easily be a solid 30 minutes of configuration to get PHP/Apache set up to run the way you want it to run.
If I want to use Clojure? I use "yum install" to be sure the server has a functioning JVM. Then I usually set my routes using Compojure, the syntax of which is certainly easier than Apache mod_rewrite. And then for the server I often simply go with Jetty, which is a 1 line dependency, and I bundle it all up with "lein uberjar".
This is the point that I made above: in the spring of 2000, PHP was the easiest thing available to me. That is why I used it. But the world has changed, and now there are other options that are at least as easy. "Ease of setup" was a very strong argument in favor of PHP in the spring of 2000, but it is not a good argument now. There ecosystems, such as the Clojure ecosystem, that offer setups that are at least as easy as configuring Apache and PHP.
> any easier compared to a hosting provider
This is easy, even for a beginner:
yum install java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel
Consider the effort that a PHP developer has to put into editing the vhost of the Apache config. And usually the php.ini file needs to be tweaked. And often there is an .htaccess file with a few mod_rewrite rules (think of WordPress, Drupal, etc) There might easily be a solid 30 minutes of configuration to get PHP/Apache set up to run the way you want it to run.
If I want to use Clojure? I use "yum install" to be sure the server has a functioning JVM. Then I usually set my routes using Compojure, the syntax of which is certainly easier than Apache mod_rewrite. And then for the server I often simply go with Jetty, which is a 1 line dependency, and I bundle it all up with "lein uberjar".
This is the point that I made above: in the spring of 2000, PHP was the easiest thing available to me. That is why I used it. But the world has changed, and now there are other options that are at least as easy. "Ease of setup" was a very strong argument in favor of PHP in the spring of 2000, but it is not a good argument now. There ecosystems, such as the Clojure ecosystem, that offer setups that are at least as easy as configuring Apache and PHP.