Limitations in running Ruby/Rails on windows

Question

In the installation documentation to RoR it mentions that there are many limitations to running Ruby on Rails on Windows, and in some cases, whole libraries do not work.

How bad are these limitations, should I always default to Linux to code / run RoR, and is Iron Ruby expected to fix these limitations or are they core to the OS itself?

EDIT Thanks for the answer around installation and running on Linux, but I am really trying to understand the limitations in functionality as referenced in the installation documentation, and non-working libraries - I am trying to find a link to the comment, but it was referenced in an installation read me when I installed the msi package I think

EDIT Thanks for the references to IronRuby lately, it is certainly a project to watch, and as it, obviously, is a .NET language, it will be invaluable if it lives up to the promises. Eventually, however, in my case, I just bit the bullet and installed an Ubuntu server.

<bias> I should've done it years ago </bias>

Answer 1

If you can't get away from windows use VMware and run some form of linux (ubuntu is popular). Your No.1 limitation will be compiled gems which do not play nicely on windows.

The majority of tutorials assume you're on some form of *nix, it's when you start to break outside of basic scaffolding when you'll feel the pain. Image manipulation, full-text search and even some db adapters will either only run on *nix or are a pain to setup.

The majority of web hosts run linux too, it's good to be developing on the same platform as your host, to avoid deployment headaches.

Answer 2

For a speedup you could try my loader speeder upper (helps rails run faster in doze): https://github.com/rdp/faster_require Also checkout spork, which works in doze

Answer 3

I'm not a rails developer myself but I thought this may be of interest. Microsoft has released IronRuby 1.0, it's a version of Ruby that runs on the .NET platform that apparently runs 4x faster than the official Rails implementation on Windows.

http://www.drdobbs.com/open-source/224600662

Official site http://ironruby.codeplex.com/

Answer 4

Personally I found getting Ruby + Rails up and running on windows a piece of cake. From download to browsing to my first 'HelloWorld' app took me all of 15 minutes. I didn't even bother with any of the InstantRails stuff.

Subsequently I can't say I encountered any of the reported speed problems or issues with Gems under Windows.

These guys also do a nice Ruby developers add on for Visual Studio:

http://www.sapphiresteel.com/

Answer 5

An option if you're stuck on Windows is to have virtual servers running Linux / BSD / what-have-you.

It solves lots of other problems also (allowing you to try multiple server configurations easily, etc.).

Answer 6

Alternative of RailsIntaller is RailsFTW. The Ruby & Rails are more updated.