10 January, 2014

Windows vs OSX vs Ubuntu for Ruby on Rails Development

Setting up an advanced Ruby environment is quite an easy task. With the advent of latest technology sophistication, professional developers use installation guides to configure their working platform for Rails development in real-world by installing Ruby on Ubuntu, Windows, or on Mac OS X. Detailed up-to-date instructions help you install newest Rails release. The newest pre-release version is Rails 4.1.0.beta1 whereas Rails 4.0.2 is the stable current release.

What is Ruby on Railsapps?

Rails Porting and Migration
The RailsApps project offers sample applications which development professionals use as starter applications. Many developers use the apps and propose solutions of report problems as these arise. Rails frequently changes depending on how every application performs to serve as your personal “reference implementation” so that you can stay updated. Each application is accompanied by a tutorial to avoid any mystery code. Project support includes the example applications along with the Rails Composer tool, coming from the RailsApps tutorials to subscribers.

Ruby on Rails development with Windows

Developing Railsapps on Windows can be a daunting task. Installation of some gems that require native extensions may be difficult. For this reason, developers mostly use Ubuntu or Mac OS X to develop Railsapps.

Some choices for Windows include:
  • Install the railsdevbox or Railsbridge Virtual Machine
  • Try using the hosted development environment Nitrous.io
  • For Windows, use RailsInstaller as documented in Installing Railapps on Windows
Nitrous.io is ideal in case you have a speedy Internet connection. If not, railsdevbox or the Railsbridge Virtual Machine can be downloaded for a virtual Linux computer with Rails 4.0 and Ruby 2.0 using Vagrant. RailsInstaller being the last option is not recommended as it does not provide an updated version of Rails or Ruby. Ruby Version Manager (RVM) also does not run on Windows.

Railsapps Development with OS X

Mostly developers like to spend a little time to set up their workspace. If you have been experimenting on this environment the core criteria of your preferred setup can be as simple as follows:
  • Unobtrusive core files without any modification
  • Flexibility with Ruby versions as well as gem versions for each project
  • Minimum configuration
  • Easy to setup existing or new projects
These same ideals would certainly help Rails developers get started quickly. You can easily choose to upgrade to Mac OS X before installing Railsapps.

It comes pre-installed with a “system Ruby”. It includes the RVM having a known security vulnerability. For flexibility during development, the system Ruby should not be used. Instead, installation of Ruby can be done using the RVM. Before installing Ruby on Rails, you would need to prepare your computer by the installation of Apple’s Xcode Command Line Tools.

Railsapps Creation with Ubuntu Linux

To install Ruby on Ubuntu, package managers are available. For Ubuntu Linux, to install Railapps or RVM is the best option. The package managers may not be up to date always and hence you can use RVM instead. Often a JavaScript runtime is needed for Railsapps development on Ubuntu Linux, but it is not needed for Windows or OS X. For development on Ubuntu, the server-side JavaScript platform Node.js can be installed. For Rails development, Ubuntu is a popular environment like other Unix-based operating systems including OS X. Installation on this platform is widespread and relatively easy and the Rails developer community is well accustomed with its accessibility.

Hopefully, this article will be of great help to your own Ruby environment development. So, next time, for installing Railsapps, you can use any of these three methods that sounds most interesting to you. CodeLearn is also great as you can focus on learning to write code without dealing with installation issues.

We provide Rails Porting and Migration services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our expert Rails developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

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