Rails is sooo awesome....okay the shameless plug of a great product is out of the way

Reasons to like RoR:
1)UI is a web browser

2)No need to troubleshoot dependency snafus on so many platforms(think wxruby/gnome2/gtk/glade on: linux source/debianized/rpmed, windows 2000+xp/vista+7/server>=2k3, mac/other unix, etc)
-basic gems without compiled code inclusion should work universally

3)Many compiled code inclusions have been sorted out(and if they haven't commercial distributions should do this *think mac osx=fail* and users of free distributions should do this - i won't publicly because i use debianized and they are having a dick measuring contest with gem atm) NOTE: if my comment there was a little excessive or vulgar sorry, but it's how i feel, and if i need to kindergarten the language for somebody out there let me know at aking1012 _AAAA__tttTTtT_ amcomworks.com

4)Easy to package(minus debianized systems....looking into that)
-there is no reason i can think of that there shouldn't be a utility that says - gems containing .so files are compiled, compiled language gems need these symbols, these symbols are provided by x, check installed gems, check required symbols, check packages, check success or failure, warn about gems that debianized system y breaks
-there are paid debian devs...i am a full time student...just a thought
-debianized policy is that everything should be through synaptic...read no require 'gem' includes...screw portability
-my policy is that portability is master of the universe and the current debianized policy is an attempt at microsoft-like vendor lock-in bs or incredible density from at least one dev
-i may seek another distro soon, or fork ubuntu for ruby devs
-rvm is my current solution so i can hide from debianization when using ruby...if i weren't a full time student i would pay the rvm developer as much as i could afford in one shot because he is THE MAN

**steps off soapbox**
Reasons it's better than python:
see previous list

So, now that I am finished complaining....
Is rails just for web-applications? Not in my opinion.  I would think it is obvious from my previous rant that I am using rails to develop end user applications to get around UI dependency difficulties.  ruby2exe and some other tools provide a way to distribute ruby/rails/app all at once in a single binary to make sure everything works.  Just my 2 cents for the day.  Thanks for listening.