Recently the Rails community got their panties in a wad about the Kickstarter for Rails.app.

I disagree with Yehuda’s methods, but I do agree that there’s a problem. Follow me down the path of installing Rails on an OS X machine, in the eyes of a newbie:

1. Hmm, I need Ruby 1.9. OS X comes with Ruby 1.8. Ok, umm, how do I build 1.9 on OS X?
2. Oh, people are pointing me at ruby-build or RVM
3. “WTF Make not found?!!”
4. Oh, I need to install a 2GB XCode, off the App Store. OK.
5. Darn, someone pointed out that I could have downloaded some Unix tool thingy at a tenth of the size. Whatever. I can use XCode as an editor, so I guess that works.
6. rvm install 1.9.2
7. rvm use 1.9.2
8. gem install bundler, because someone told me to.
9. WTF?!! “Failed to build native extension”.
10. Great, pass some oddball command to rvm and it worked
11. Ok, I need to install MySQL because I need a database. I hope this one labeled 10.6 works, and I hope I get the right format and architecture
12. gem install mysql, because someone told me to.
13. Could not build native extension. Again. Same error message, different reason, and a different solution. This is getting old.
14. Great! My setup’s all working. Oh, there’s an update to OS X? Better download that…
15. WTF broke now?
16. Ok I fixed it.
17. Great! My setup’s all working. Oh, I have updates on the Mac App Store. I better Update All.
18. Hmm. I got a new version of XCode. I hope my Ruby didn’t break.
19. Why do I need to bundle exec everything?! (Oh, there’s a solution for that?!!)
20. We’re moving to Ruby 1.9.3. rvm install 1.9.3. Great, another error

Some of these are exaggerated, and some of these have been resolved by the community at large. A few of these stump even me, a professional Rails developer. Example: I haven’t been able to build Ruby 1.9.2 since Xcode 4.3. Yes, I know: rvm get latest, and pray.

This is why I do all my Rails development on virtual machines, thanks to Vagrant and Puppet. With Vagrant + Puppet I have an environment I totally control, and I know will remain stable (and reproducibly stable).

We’re also discounting people who have to try the latest and greatest, like the OMG I’M A DEVELOPER, SO I HAVE TO RUN THE MOUNTAIN LION BETAS TO DO PRODUCTION WORK people.