http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2008/12/23/merb-gets-merged-into-rails-3
Though there are plenty of details that will need to be worked out while
the actual work is being done, some of the major pieces of Rails 3.0 are
fairly clear:
* Support for component agnosticism and running with less than a
full stack
* Performance optimizations ported from existing Merb code
* Documented public API for plugins to use
* Support for ORMs other than Active Record
* Migration paths for both existing Rails and existing Merb applications
Bonus =)
* Without Rails, the Ruby language would not be one of the top 10
programming languages <http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe_index/index.htm>
* Without Rails, we would still be writing thousand-line
configuration files in XML
<http://www.skywayradio.com/tech/iSeries/wps/admxmsmp.html> to
start your small app
* Without Rails, most developers would not know what MVC
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller> stands for
* Without Rails, I would not be a Ruby web developer
* Without Rails, we would not have Merb <http://merbivore.com>
* Without Rails, we would not have all the other cool Ruby frameworks
* Without Rails, testing <http://rspec.info> would be something only
the elite would do
* Without Rails, serving Ruby web apps would be a pain in the neck
* Without Rails, Zed Shaw <http://www.zedshaw.com/> would not be famous
