As a programming noob, I've used both RailsTutorial's method (RoR/Git/Heroku), DjangoBook's Method (Py-Dj/no mention of version control/Apache+mod_python), and GAE's method.

I found RailsTutorial to be the easiest for my noobishness - though all were admittedly pretty good. GAE didn't seem easily portable at all compared to the other two - which was concerning, while DjangoBook's system seemed incomplete without teaching version control - like R-T does. For noobs, I like the easy way RoR/Git/Heroku are together, but I like Python better.

I'm anxious for http://www.Djangy.com to come out as the Heroku for Django and encouraged to see them use Git and not Hg.