Ruby, Ruby on Rails and Drupal, what is the difference?

A lot of people just don't get it. So let us straighten out some confusing matters. So to avoid more FUD.

Don't confuse Ruby with Drupal. Don't think that Ruby on Rails and Drupal can be compared, they cannot. On top of that, they are complementary.

There is Ruby. Ruby is just another programming-language, like Perl, PHP, C or Java. Ruby is one of the newest languages (~14 years old), which -in practice- means it has learned a lot from bad parts of older languages.

There is Ruby on Rails (RoR). This is a system (program) written in the language Ruby. Just like Drupal is written in PHP. But RoR is a framework, not a CMS; With RoR you will have to write your own CMS all by yourself. Drupal already IS a CMS. Ruby on Rails's power (and hype) lies in the fact that writing that complete CMS takes you only a few days, or even just hours. Drupal's power lies in the fact that you don't have to write anything at all.

Conclusion: comparing Ruby with Drupal is like comparing Christmas trees and oranges. Comparing Ruby on Rails and Drupal is like comparing apples and oranges.