I personally have always loved java and C# style and syntax, but having tried ruby on rails there is no ignoring dynamic languages ability to get stuff done. Especially one with functional style that makes programming fun.

Grails makes extensive use of groovy and even more interesting is the way they have wrapped some mature favorites (junit, ant and hybernate) with the groovy language. They have a powerful mvc and a really streamline workflow. You have to try it.

Installing Grails on Ubuntu

You'll want to purge the openjdk and install oracle's version

sudo apt-get purge openjdk*
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

Then you'll need to set the JAVA_HOME in your .bashrc. Something like this...

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin

Lastly you'll want to install grails with the GVM here: http://gvmtool.net/

Tips For Getting Started

• get started with groovy and grails
• Series of grails casts
• Blog post on grails and mysql
• Getting started with database migrations
• You'll want the grails asset pipeline which includes less