Introducing Merb

This document discusses the history and key aspects of Merb, an open-source web framework for Ruby. It provides an overview of Merb's origins and releases. It compares Merb to Rails, noting their similarities like using Ruby and MVC patterns, but also differences like Merb being more modular and focusing on performance. Merb uses a plugin architecture with slices of standalone applications that can be included. While still relatively new, Merb aims to merge with Rails 3 in 2009 to incorporate all of Merb's features.