Yea. So they've move away from the Perl-like 'rocket' syntax to a more JavaScript/Python-like syntax. Ruby+Python hackers will rejoice while Perl+Ruby hackers will pout. This isn't necessarily some 'huge' win.
[Though I guess it could be a 'win' for Rails hackers since they are likely to just be Ruby/Rails+JavaScript hackers.]
As a Perl developer I'd say »More power to them.« Also, since Perl's => is basically a comma operator that turns a bareword on its left into a string, I'd say Ruby's move is a step away from Perl regarding syntax, but a step towards Perl regarding functionality.
Anyway, as a non-Ruby developer I can appreciate the move. Also reminds a bit of some Scheme's ability to prefix and postfix symbols with »:«.
[Though I guess it could be a 'win' for Rails hackers since they are likely to just be Ruby/Rails+JavaScript hackers.]