I totally agree with this sentiment...actually I've already decided to use Apache/Passenger for an app I'm releasing (hopefully soon for all to review). Today's announcement is really icing on the cake.

My reasoning prior to today's announcement? The convenience of the deploy. The fact that I don't have to dive into Ebb/Thin/Mongrel and figure that out (probably easy for 99% of the people on this thread) means more time to think about other things.

It's also exciting from the perspective that I'm interested in seeing what the Ebb/Thin/Mongrel teams are going to do. Competition is great!