Indeed, there's nothing like just logging in to a linux box you got access at school or pay $1/mo for and typing 'nano public_html/index.php' - stuff Just Works.

Trying to get a python/ruby framework working in the same env, without root access? Whoooo boy. 20 years in the business and I still refuse to do that crap. FastCGI and the like just never work properly the first time in shared hosting.

You need virtual environments to keep dependencies at bay, debugging is a pain if the web server and fcgi process don't communicate properly. Most likely you won't have access to error.log so good luck figuring out why everything returns HTTP 500.

While you're still figuring out how to get helloworld.py to respond, the dude with PHP is already done.