You made a good point that to many people, Ruby is essentially a Rails engine.
However, same can be said of Python. To many people, Python is essentially a Zope engine. And currently *no* implementation of Python other than CPython runs Zope.
Good writeup, Michael. I need to point out that Ruby on Rails is important, not because Rails is a world class framework, but because it brings people to the Ruby platform, who will later be able to use other parts of the ecosystem.
Further, the recommended deployment option for JRuby on Rails is actually not with Mongrels at all (but the several-Mongrels-in-a-JVM is vastly superior to the C alternative), the preferred way is to just pack the Rails application in a WAR-file and give it to your IS team to deploy in any compliant Java Web Container (like Tomcat, Jetty, GlassFish, WebSphere, etc).
Commenting by HaloScan
