I think of the web as an application platform rather than just brochureware

a major drawback

The mod_ruby apache module does not allow multiple sites of the same server as safe as running ruby in CGI.

Practically this means worse performance or more security trouble which is just not an option.

I dislike Zend’s involvement in PHP

I don’t feel like using Zend’s framework

simple things are complicated when they shouldn’t be

and the manual is not as good as cakePHP or Symphony’s.

Symphony is using PEAR for installing and upgrading.

PEAR is great for managing simple PHP extensions

but not something this big.

installation is time consuming

upgrading can be a pain if things start to break.

the smallest framework of the 4 (less than 200k compressed)

UTF-8

the ability to upgrade cake in 5 seconds

rename the cake directory and copy the directory with the new release in your webroot

the winner is CakePHP as you should have already guessed