NodeJS didn't exist, Python is slow and Go scales fine on ONE server but doesn't scale horizontally very well... while PHP scales perfectly that way. It has downsides, which is why we pick other languages for some components (our Spreed High Performance Back-end for Nextcloud Talk is written in Go, our app store in Ruby).
But talk was initially written in Go, which made it harder to install, so we actually rewrote it in PHP... There's a lot of value in having a built-in app store that is easy to use from the web UI. There is a reason why the web runs on PHP. And it isn't because it is perfect, but it has some neath advantages that just help in many scenarios.
But talk was initially written in Go, which made it harder to install, so we actually rewrote it in PHP... There's a lot of value in having a built-in app store that is easy to use from the web UI. There is a reason why the web runs on PHP. And it isn't because it is perfect, but it has some neath advantages that just help in many scenarios.