David Heinemeier Hansson:

That platform has really received an unfair reputation.

I remember seeing a video of DHH some years ago, where he gave a presentation at Roskilde University. In that, he spent quite a large portion of his time mocking PHP, contributing to this exact reputation it has got.

I personally use PHP a bit at work, but as rarely as possible in my spare time. But I will give it this: it gets the job done. Whenever I do something that I actually need to deploy, I resort to PHP, because it works for the platforms I would deploy it to. Mostly, this is due to Django being difficult to deploy, thus PHP being an easier option.

But I do not agree on it having an unfair reputation. It is well-known, and appropriately admired, for being deployable, but that really is one of the only good things I can say about it. And I maintain a site called php hacker — I am not a hater.