All About the Project (Score 1)

As someone who regularly designs applications in both .NET and PHP, I've learned that the language (Ruby, PHP5) and the platform/framework (Rails, CakePHP, .NET) should usually be chosen based on the needs of a particular project. For instance, I would never use PHP or RoR to design a large enterprise level system; I've found .NET and MSSQL to work far more reliably. On the other hand, PHP5 has come a LONG way for small to medium level projects, and I would use it in a heartbeat on one of those.

When you talk about the different choices for each platform, ALWAYS ask what would suit the needs of the project.

From a subjective standpoint, I really cannot stand CakePHP. It's bloated and has a pretty bad Active record implementation. What usually works best, in ANY platform, is to either invest some time in designing a framework yourself, or use an extremely light-weight framework to get off the ground.