It depends on your own preferences and attitudes... Also, as with any job the tools you use depends on the requirements and constraints.
In terms of the syntax Ruby is vastly different from most procedural programming languages such as C, php, perl, etc. It's particularly suited to object-orientated programming.
I've had a play with the Rails framework and it's all about conformity in order to reduce development time, but that means there's a steep learning curve, especially if you're new to OO programming. I recommend it highly if you have time to learn it's principles, because it can save time. I also recommend Agile Web Development with Rails as a good book to start with, it helped me.
