so I'm reading this blog about how Rail doesn't have a chance or simply won't go mainstream, and I actually agree... RoR has two sides... one, it is just another MVC framework, this time for Ruby instead of other languages... this is nothing new, they come and go and I don't see why it would have more attention than any other... the second part is its Ajax compatibility, using prototype and scriptaculous. so it now combines too nice aspects. We're only debating that part now ... this leads me to think who/what would go mainstream? Well, Avalon and XAML will probably penetrate hard and catch all the .net developers' attention ... Laszlo couldn't compete with Flex, but does it have a chance in the Ajax world? Zimbra, Tibco, Yahoo Patterns, IBM Open Ajax efforts ... which framework or toolkit is going to get more attention ... or is it even important? Maybe there will be no mainstream, and Ajax will just become another technique that's just assumed to be known by any and every web developer. I think that these toolkits are targeting more RIA development using JS/DHTML more than Ajax. So now a framework has to contain a nice solid MVC server side, Ajax scripting, and an IDE, possibly Eclipse based... wow ... who dares to predict it?