I knew about Python in 2006 or so when got into Linux, and at that time (when Python 2 was a thing, iirc it just came out) it was very popular between the FOSS world for doing apps and GUIs (I even toyed a lot with PyGTK), whereas I felt Perl was much more about more "serious" stuff like text processing and kind of a sh language with steroids. I just barely heard about Ruby and wasn't sure what it was its purpose - I just heard about its "gems" but not about Rails. Still as both Python and Perl were FOSS I supposed their niche and user base were going to be around it, as many things FOSS at the time.
At 2008 I started my graphic design studies and I just pretty had to forgot about programming (which in hindsight if I had kept doing it I would have a very strong programming background and maybe my life would be much better now, but it is what it is) - but was very surprised to discover around 2011 or so that it seemed _everyone_ was using Python. Like I just blinked and it took over the world somehow.
At 2008 I started my graphic design studies and I just pretty had to forgot about programming (which in hindsight if I had kept doing it I would have a very strong programming background and maybe my life would be much better now, but it is what it is) - but was very surprised to discover around 2011 or so that it seemed _everyone_ was using Python. Like I just blinked and it took over the world somehow.