Is Windows a good environment for Ruby/Rails ? It certainly should !

March 26th, 2008

I just stumbled upon Is Windows a First Class Platform for Ruby? by Peter Cooper and Is Windows a supported platform for Ruby? I guess not by Luis Lavena.

I have to admit, I did use Windows daily for 3 years before I switched permanently to Ubuntu, about 6 months back. Initially, I was using IntelliJ’s IDEA as my development platform, then I switched to the e Text Editor. I never had many problems with gems that didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t install. There are many kind souls in the community that keep these gems up to date. I’m talking specifically about Tim Hunter (RMagick), Luis Lavena (Mongrel) and others.

Just before I made the final switch, I was using Linux in a VMware image to run XLsuite. The application was unbearably slow in Windows, but acceptable in a virtual machine. I was using the e Text Editor as my editor, accessing the code through a Samba share.

My own experience was pretty positive. Now that I’m on Ubuntu, I wouldn’t go back though. What made me switch ? Better performance on the same hardware, mostly; the novelty of the experience. I do not dislike Windows, nor do I think Redmond is a bad place. Windows is a fine platform.

Just to contrast, look at the excellent support Java enjoys on Windows. Windows is the 2nd platform for Java (with Solaris being the 1st). We, the Ruby community, should be learning from Sun. There are many, many more Windows machines than Mac or Linux machines out there. There are literally millions of people who could learn to write Ruby, but are on Windows. Dr Nic said it all: … People Use Windows Too. Whether you want to or not, Windows isn’t going away soon.

Personally, I have made the switch. But just on my small team, Windows users outnumber other platforms 1 to 1. Here’s the breakdown:

  • 4 Windows (2 coders, 1 designer, 1 sponsor)
  • 2 Ubuntu (1 coder, 1 designer)
  • 1 Mac (1 ExtJS coder)

Is Windows a good platform for Ruby ? Yes. Is Windows a great platform for Ruby ? No, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be. Just look at Why’s work on Hackety Hack. I’m really impressed and happy that I will be able to show Ruby to my daughters. The catch ? Hackety Hack is for Windows only right now.

Please, let’s keep and increase Windows support. Once they’re hooked, they might switch, who knows ?

3 Responses to “Is Windows a good environment for Ruby/Rails ? It certainly should !”

  1. Walter McGinnis Says:
    March 26th, 2008 at 04:19 PM

    Since Ruby is in the open source world, I would say that the work to be done to make Windows a first class platform for Ruby should be done by those whom are proponents of using Ruby on Windows.

    In other words people need to “scratch their own itch”.

    I’m not adverse to making Windows a first class platform for Ruby, nor am I for it. I just think the work should be done, bit by bit, by those that will use it and benefit from it. As people do all the time already for Linux, *BSDs, Solaris, and Mac OS X.

    I imagine a fair amount of people do it already for Windows, in fact. Hell Microsoft has even thrown in some effort. Silverlight includes Ruby support, doesn’t it?

    The point is, if people want better Windows support, they should take the initiative and do the work or pool resources to get the work done.

    It will always be second class if the effort is done as a charity case by those who primarily use other platforms.

    Cheers, Walter

  2. Luis Lavena Says:
    March 29th, 2008 at 04:10 PM

    Hello Francois.

    Thank you for your pointer, points and comments about the issue described there.

    @Walter: work is being done, not on charity bases like you mention, but by those who uses the language and the platform on a daily basis.

    But there are issues beyond that, related to some internals onf the language itself that requires feedback from the developers, and not even the “maintainers” of the builds for Windows answer’s that (we are talking 2 months frame, 0 reply).

    So, how ca we (One-Click Installer developers) keep working on this? We should diverge from trunk and “fork” to include our own set of patches?

    I don’t like the idea, not at all.

    Regards, Luis Lavena

  3. Sebastian Says:
    March 30th, 2008 at 05:05 PM

    For beginners Instant Rails for windows is excelent. After first step everyone should install normaln ruby, rails…

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I am François Beausoleil, a Ruby on Rails coder. During the day, I work on XLsuite. At night, I am interested many things. Read my biography

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