Selecting the right technology and environment

We are two developers on the edge of starting new web produ开发者_如何转开发ct development.

We are both fans of lean start-up approach and would like to practice continuous deployment.

Here comes the dilemma - we are both coming from a C# / Windows background and we need to decide between:

1. Stick to .NET and Windows, we will not waste time on learning new technologies and put all our effort in the development.

2. Switch to Ruby on Rails and Linux which has a good reputation of fast ramp up and vast open source support. The negative side is that we will need to put a lot of effort in learning Ruby, Rails and Linux...

What would you do? What other considerations should we take?

Surely stick to what you know, and spend your time solving the domain problems and not learning new technology (especially as neither of you have experiance in Ruby). Unless you believe that Ruby can offer you something that .NET cannot and in the long term you will save time and get your product to market quicker?

I think the main consideration is time to market and how long you can live without revenue?

You could decide to do V1 in .NET for speed and plan V2 in Ruby.

I often find that getting a product out to market quickly and see what real users say, changes the product etc.. and is more useful than getting stuck on technologies.

A lot of factors come into play when it comes to decisions like this: time and budget constraints, plus depth of learning curve in your technology portfolio. The language and platform has less to do with your development methodology and market strategy.