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Ruby

Posted by Thomas MacFarlane
Thomas MacFarlane
2,430 Points

Ruby on Rails - Not Linux?

I was surprised after doing console foundations surrounding Linux that I had to install Ruby on Rails for Mac or Windows. Mac wouldn't be so bad because I would have a bash, but I'm looking at my ugly butt-face cmd prompt.

If the majority of servers are run on Linux, why isn't Ruby on Rails taught for Linux?

I'm totally new to Ruby on Rails so I dunno if it's because it's too hard to do on Linux or because the railsinstaller.org only works for Mac or Windows or....? Just curious?

2 Answers

Muhammad Adil
Muhammad Adil
3,488 Points
Muhammad Adil
Muhammad Adil
3,488 Points

  1. Since mac and linux are both based on unix => you can use your console fundamental knowledge on any such system (linux and mac in this case).

  2. As far as installing ruby on rails setup is concerned, railsinstaller is used because most of the times, installing rails become a bottleneck in moving forward with rails and this setup reduce the pain of installing rails. You can use another such setup solution called Ruby Stack by bitnami and it's also available for linux, so give it a try. http://bitnami.com/stack/ruby/installer

I wish to have visual studio or xcode like setup for rails :).

Paul Graham
Paul Graham
1,396 Points

Mac has Tokaido (aka Rails.app) but it's a little buggy right now still https://github.com/tokaido/tokaidoapp

Muhammad Adil
Muhammad Adil
3,488 Points

it is not ready for prime time, though it is a good step towards making rails setup a breeze.

Thomas MacFarlane
Thomas MacFarlane
2,430 Points

I don't have a Mac, therefore I'm stuck with learning on Windows or trying to find a railsinstaller.org alternative like you've said for Linux. Seems a bit odd to suddenly bring in Windows and ignore Linux after we've been told to focus mainly on POSIX OSs

Colin Stodd
Colin Stodd
3,160 Points
Colin Stodd
Colin Stodd
3,160 Points

Thomas, I tried using Windows to learn Ruby/Rails, and I kept running into problems because most tutorials are instructed on a Mac or Linux system since they use the terminal to execute programs. Therefore, I highly recommend that you get used to a system such as Mac or Linux when learning Ruby/Rails. You can get Ubuntu/Linux for free, and easy to install > uninstall without damaging any files or your computer.

You can do this via the Wubi installer by clicking here. Which is short for Windows Ubuntu Installer I believe. It will install Ubuntu/Linux in a virtual type drive in your windows partition, which basically means its installed just like any other Windows software on your Windows operating system. And when you want to uninstall it, you just go to your "Uninstall options" in Windows and it uninstalls like any other software.

But I cannot stress enough, how learning on a UNIX (mac or linux) system will help you in the long run. Let me know if you need more help.

Thomas MacFarlane
Thomas MacFarlane
2,430 Points

Yeah, I'm using Ubuntu in a VM, thanks. It also allowed me to understand how to manually install Ruby on Rails.

Paul Graham
Paul Graham
1,396 Points
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
1,396 Points

I'm sorry, what exactly is your issue? Almost every Rails app runs in Linux unless you're trying into system processes. What's the difference what platform it's on? That's like complaining about the color of someone's shoes.

Thomas MacFarlane
Thomas MacFarlane
2,430 Points

No issue, just thought it strange that they would suggest set-up on Mac or Windows after explaining how most servers are Linux.

I mean, Mac makes sense obviously, but an extra video purely for Windows and no video at all on Linux seemed a bit odd to me, was wondering if there was some reason why Linux isn't mentioned, whether for ease of learning or something. But I thought there'd be more reasons why not to use Windows to build apps, I saw people on the forum saying Windows was incredibly frustrating to work with Ruby on Rails.

I much rather work in the environment that I would be spending most of my time in, but not sure if will encounter problems not using railinstaller.org

Paul Graham
Paul Graham
1,396 Points

Oh for install reasons, I get it.

Linux is pretty straightforward though. Most new distros will have Ruby 1.9 or higher on them and then it's just a matter of installing the rails gem.

Other than that, you might want to consider something like RVM so you don't have to wait for your OS to upgrade your ruby. And using something like RVM, while manageable for most, is well outside the difficulty of something like Rails Installer. The fact that we even have to discuss all this is one of many reasons I think Rails is bad for beginners. The fact is, all I should have to say is "install the Rails gem" and if you don't know enough about Ruby to know all the implications of that statement, you're probably not ready for Rails.

Thomas MacFarlane
Thomas MacFarlane
2,430 Points

The way you talk is a bit convoluted, are you saying that the reason you think they stuck with Mac and Windows is because of the ease of using Rails Installer?

You seem a little hostile too, I'm not doing anything wrong, I don't know a single thing about Ruby or Rails, I'm just following the Web Dev path. Do you think Treehouse have made a poor choice?