I don't think it is. The bleeding edge of Web 1.0 or even Web 2.0 development required a LAMP stack.
The author says that compared to programming desktop applications (all of the languages he mentioned), the web based stack of MySQL, PHP, and Linux better allowed him to create apps that users wanted.
Developers who started with PHP and moved up to Ruby and Python may not realize that older developers who started with Assembler, Basic, and C++ find any kind of web development a huge improvement for them. And, a productive single person would by definition try to extend and improve their app instead of learning new languages unnecessarily every 6 months.
Not only compared to desktop applications was LAMP a huge advantage, but also compared to Microsofts Web-Technologie (IIS,MS-Server,ASP and later .NET). I was able to create apps the user wanted in the years I used MS technologie, but I did not like it very much. When I discovered LAMP it was like YEAH! and I stayed at home and coded away for weeks and some great stuff came out of this.
As for the language (you mention moving "up" to Ruby or Python), I dont really care if I do
str_replace('stuff','zen','stuff and the art not to care');
or
'stuff and the art not to care'.kickasstransform('stuff','zen');
or whatever the latest hottness is :-)
When it comes to things that matter, I dont miss anything in PHP. For example, Javascript is a cooler language, because it has first class functions and all that crazy shit. Ok, I dont mind that. But on the other hand, I HATE with a passion that "a=7" will by default put "a" into the global scope in Javascript. That outweights all the advanced tech in Javascript.
But the language itself is not the most important factor. Most important is all the stuff that surrounds it. When I use PHP, I get new servers within a click with any company i choose. I get the LAMP stack installed by putting an Ubuntu CD into any machine, install it and do "apt-get install php5". On IRC, there are tons of people on freenode#php (there aint many for Ruby for example). And there is a very nice manual at php.net and so on.
And VERY important to me is the whole feeling about how L,A,M and P are implemented. How I can use php on the command line, how I can start mysql from the command line and give it commandlineparameters, how one table is represented in MySql (one file for the structure, one file for the data and one for the indexes), how a database is represented in MySql (a directory)... There are millions of things I like. And they make me feel that the people who wrote L,A,M and P at least partly think like me. Thats cool and makes me productive.
There must be something about a language that helps it map to our brains. The creators of the language must be "like" its users in some way for the language to make sense. Or perhaps it's the language that is the mapping between the way the world works and the perception of that world in the minds of the users and the creators.
I didn't mean to imply PHP couldn't be used successfully (it certainly can), rather the post sounded blissfully ignorant to the point of sarcasm. Perhaps "ignorant" isn't the right word, though ignorant of the "better" languages.
I think I know what you mean. When I read it, I got the same impression. It's not ignorance, because what the post is saying is true. LAMP does do all those things and it is very smart in many ways. But the things listed are equivalently true of other languages and programming platforms as well.
I don't understand though, why PHP is being compared to JS, when they solve different problems.
The author says that compared to programming desktop applications (all of the languages he mentioned), the web based stack of MySQL, PHP, and Linux better allowed him to create apps that users wanted.
Developers who started with PHP and moved up to Ruby and Python may not realize that older developers who started with Assembler, Basic, and C++ find any kind of web development a huge improvement for them. And, a productive single person would by definition try to extend and improve their app instead of learning new languages unnecessarily every 6 months.