In reply to Rick.

While I do agree with some of your points, I think you underestimate PHP and should read these:

https://php.net/manual/en/intro.pthreads.php
http://hhvm.com/
http://www.php-compiler.net/

and reconsider the sentence: "Since PHP developers keep their eyes on PHP they tend have no idea what is happening in the rest of the data technology universe."

This might be interesting for you too: