Yes, now if they only got rid of censoring Tienanmen and other bullshit..

Just as a side note, nginx is much faster, more lightweight and better web server. Point still stands tho, you don't need threads for web serving. I have also wanted threads in PHP for scripting, as it is the only thing missing in PHP.

Python is a bad choice. Using whitespace to denote code blocks is ridiculous at best. Countless amount of problems with copy-pasting code and beginners always miss it. I've been using Python myself, but I always hate when I have to.

Most hate towards PHP comes from elitist snobs who don't know how to use the language. PHP is perfectly fine language to use, and it is extremely powerful and flexible. If you are going to develop for web, I suggest using some framework, as it makes the process much more straightforward, faster and better. I personally use CodeIgniter, which is fast and has a good library of helpers and other essential framework stuff. CakePHP is often suggested for persons new to frameworks, but I would stay away from it. It's slower and it's more pain in the ass to learn.

There's also other good things about PHP. First of all, it works with practically every web host out there, and doesn't require you to play around with it to get it work. It has an extremely comprehensive library, amazing documentation and almost all API's have client libraries for it, if they just have some. PHP, being the #1 platform on the web, gives you that advantage.