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Ruby Build a Simple Ruby on Rails Application Getting Started with Rails Installing Rails (Windows)

Andres Morales
Andres Morales
10,634 Points
Posted by Andres Morales
Andres Morales
10,634 Points

What is the difference between this way to install Ruby and the other one?

Hi, I just want to know the difference between this method and the newer one... Thanks

2 Answers

Xander Miller
Xander Miller
9,072 Points
Xander Miller
Xander Miller
9,072 Points

There are two ways to do web development:

Local Machine Environment:

You set up Ruby or other languages and resources, database, on your local machine.

Pros:

  • Faster
  • No other operating system or network issues to deal with.

Cons:

  • Your local environment is dirtied by all the other stuff you do with your computer.
  • Also the production environment of your application will likely not be OSX, or windows 8, so it is not ideal for debugging environment issues.
  • Also collaborators on your app may have different environment setups and this can cause conflicts and commit wars.

Virtual Machine / Cloud Development

You set up a virtual machine either locally or in the cloud.

Pros:

  • Collaborators can all use same environment.
  • Clean, isolated environment, easy to purge update your environment without effecting you local machine.
  • Can better replicated production environment of your app.

Cons

  • Slower (local virtual machine), or requires Internet connection (cloud solution)
  • Need to resolve network and file syncing issues

I prefer Nitrous or virtual box development so I'm not the greatest advocate for local machine development. But this should give you a basic idea of the options.

Jeff Lange
Jeff Lange
8,788 Points
Jeff Lange
Jeff Lange
8,788 Points

Here you go Andres, this is exactly what you were looking for. Good answer, Alexander!

Jeff Lange
Jeff Lange
8,788 Points
Jeff Lange
Jeff Lange
8,788 Points

You haven't specified what the first way, or the "other" way to install Ruby are. What do you mean?

I suspect that it simply gives you instructions for installing Ruby on both Mac and on Windows. You only need to watch and complete the video for whichever type of computer you are using.

Andres Morales
Andres Morales
10,634 Points
Andres Morales
Andres Morales
10,634 Points

Hi, thank you for your reply, what I mean is, there's this method where you use virtual box, and the other method where you follow different steps, without the treehouse zip file...

Jeff Lange
Jeff Lange
8,788 Points
Jeff Lange
Jeff Lange
8,788 Points

Ah, ok. It's been a long time since I was setting that up. I believe the virtual box is for if you want to set up a "virtual machine," which is like running another computer inside of your computer. This is useful because it allows you to run a separate operating system if you want (if you're using a PC, I believe they have you run Linux). It also insulates whatever you are doing in the virtual machine from the rest of your computer, which can be helpful in avoiding/solving errors, since there are less variables to untangle.

I personally found it to be too much trouble to get the virtual machine running, so I just installed Ruby and Rails straight up to my computer and have been running from there. I've run into some issues, but so far have been able to solve just about everything.

So it just comes down to your preference. :)