Ruby is a dynamic, open source programming language that was created in the mid-1990s by Yukihiro Matsumoto. While it shares some similarities with .NET languages like C#, Ruby differs in that everything is an object, it is very flexible and forgiving, and it emphasizes programmer productivity. Ruby utilizes duck typing through modules and mixins rather than interfaces. Popular Ruby frameworks include Ruby on Rails for web development and libraries like Enumerable are implemented through mixins rather than interfaces. The Ruby ecosystem includes tools like RubyGems and testing frameworks like RSpec.