The author points to my article: http://railsapps.github.com/installing-rails.html http://railsapps.github.com/installing-rails.html I titled my article "Read

The author points to my article: http://railsapps.github.com/installing-rails.html http://railsapps.github.com/installing-rails.html I titled my article "Read This Before Installing Rails" because Rails is not just a Ruby gem, it is a complex and rapidly evolving ecosystem. Sure, if you want to see Rails running on your Mac you can use the installed system Ruby 1.8.7 and "gem install rails". But if you want to do development, you'll need to update (and keep updated) all the related gems and packages that are an essential part of the Rails habitat. Judging from the comments and help requests I see, that's not easy. Packages such as RailsInstaller, Cinderella or the BitNami RubyStack are great but they inevitably slip further and further behind the evolving state of the Rails ecosystem. I'm hoping the design of Yehuda Katz's Tokaido will avoid this issue. In the meantime, yes, it's difficult to install (and keep current) a useful and fully functioning Rails development environment on a Mac (or any other machine!). I say that from the experience of attempting to keep my "Installing Rails" article current. For example, would you like to develop using Ruby 1.9.3 (the current recommended version) and deploy to Heroku (which now supports Ruby 1.9.3)? You'll need to update to the unreleased 1.2.0.pre.1 bundler (which requires a "gem uninstall" not a "gem update"). That's true today. Maybe it'll change tomorrow. A rapidly evolving ecosystem is not a bad thing. Rails is a powerful, widely used, and well-supported development platform. The constant changes bring increased utility. If you can keep up and find the right advice. The author's article is sound and offers some of that good advice.