Python Versus PHP

[Laserturtle]

Bah, I'm so torn. PHP is a lot easier to find platforms for, and I’m more comfortable with it, but Python's speed, syntax, and consistency are all preferable

[TheMatrix]

PHP is not a general purpose scripting language. If you intend to do anything that works both on the web as well as off, use Python(or Perl, my favourite :)). PHP mostly consists of weak wrappers around some C functions.
Oh, and PHP is designed to "just keep going". Meaning: reading, parsing, compilation, and execution happens as it goes along; and if you do something unexpected in PHP, it will do something unexpected. Oh, and I find the fact that there are multiple functions that all do the same thing annoying.
In addition, some features rely on an Apache server. This means that you will not be able to run everything if you choose to use something more reliable like nginx.
And my final rant(in this post, anyways) is that there is only one way to do things, which goes against Perl's philosophy of TIMTOWTDI (http://ddg.gg/?q=TIMTOWTDI&t=midori)(apparently, PHP used to be a Perl library. Now, the source is an unintelligible mess of crap)