[development] Question about Drupal performance

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

 From the admin staff on a web host I am using I got a message saying:

"Personally I'll recommend Drupal when pigs can fly, because I believe 
it is just that ... a pig. Slow even when I tried it on my dedicated 
server... its very full featured, but it is hardly peppy, at the best of 
times... and, I'm not aware of many Drupal sites on the platform -- 
there are definitely better choices performance wise at the current 
juncture."

Can you comment on this, please? I am just going to setup some more 
Drupal site and got a bit frustrated.

- L