From experience with both python/django and ruby/rails, I think python is generally simpler. Start with the fact that python itself is usually pre-installed on most distros, and usually a recent-enough version to get you started. Ruby on the other hand is much harder to just get installed, choosing the right (minor)version, rvm/rbenv choices etc. I tend to compile my ruby, but it's a lengthy and rather fragile process.
Graphite is both a good and bad example. Good because it is really complex and documentation is a little sketchy. I've written a fabric script[1] that automates the process, and it's far from trivial. Bad example, because it's not really a single app, but a system - a collection of tools with dependencies. Even if we discount the web server (nginx or apache?), it includes things like the core "database" (whisper), the event listener (carbon, which in itself is complex depending on your setup), the graphic and processing libraries, and then graphite which is a pretty involved django app with its own sub-components.
So when you say graphite, it's really a full-blown system with lots of moving parts that need to fit in together. I can't think of an equivalent example in the rails world, but any rails app with a db, caching layer, and a few other external components won't be much easier to get set up and running.
Graphite is both a good and bad example. Good because it is really complex and documentation is a little sketchy. I've written a fabric script[1] that automates the process, and it's far from trivial. Bad example, because it's not really a single app, but a system - a collection of tools with dependencies. Even if we discount the web server (nginx or apache?), it includes things like the core "database" (whisper), the event listener (carbon, which in itself is complex depending on your setup), the graphic and processing libraries, and then graphite which is a pretty involved django app with its own sub-components.
So when you say graphite, it's really a full-blown system with lots of moving parts that need to fit in together. I can't think of an equivalent example in the rails world, but any rails app with a db, caching layer, and a few other external components won't be much easier to get set up and running.
[1]https://github.com/gingerlime/graphite-fabric