I think the "we" is a bit unwarranted. I don't hate Ruby and I certainly don't hate Ruby more than Java :-) I also don't feel the same about puppet; I do see some problems with it, but none of them have nothing to do with the fact that it's written in Ruby.
Well, 90% of the ops team.
I think this discussion is pointless though. If we find a good tool for the job and it's clear how to install and maintain it, I don't see why we should care about its implementation language, at least from an ops perspective. I've seen horrible & difficult to operate software in Python and perfect ones in Ruby. I don't see how our personal preferences towards languages have any value here.
It wouldn't be a blocker, but it's a major negative, IMO. At minimum, it's as much of a negative as Gerrit being Java. Few of us know ruby very well, and managing the language and libraries is a pain in the ass, thanks to the ruby community.
That said, it's no point worrying about this until we actually find something that's a reasonable alternative. I'm on the pro-gerrit side, as it works well for me and I see no other reasonable alternatives.
- Ryan