For a website I want to build, I have to choose the platform and the programming language. At work I use Java and Websphere 6, but can't use it for my own project. The reason is that I don't know how popular my service would be it seems quite expensive to put it into Websphere hosting. I have Java capabilities in my hosting plan here, but its only for web applications with no backend server support. In other words - there will be no MVC. Only JSPs and servlets.
And I will not be able to use JDK 5, nor be able to change server to, say, Glassfish, so I will be able to use some latest useful JSF components.
Another choice would be to choose other language, say Ruby. But I don't have any experience using it, so it would be a major roadblock for a starters.
I'm stuck again!