As Ruby on Rails gains popularity, software developers are starting to ask whether it will deliver performance and scalability needed for complex applications supporting thousands of users. Though some say Rails is slow and others say they support a million users on a 233 MHz server, little has been done to quantify performance in a meaningful way. What's needed is a detailed, methodical, and unbiased evaluation.

Hacking together your own quick benchmark is an excellent way to understand Rails performance. This talk will walk you through the nuts and bolts of benchmarking Rails against your favorite alternative. We'll set up customized performance goals and metrics, design performance tests, run tests using free open source performance tools on cheap hardware, and methodically evaluate the results. Linnell will share details of his own Rails versus Java/J2EE tests, focusing on results and conclusions. Still, the best tests are the ones you'll make yourself.