Ruby, RubyGems, Rails, and Git

 Practically all the software in the world is either broken or very difficult to use. So users dread software. They’ve been trained that whenever they try to install something, or even fill out a form online, it’s not going to work. I dread installing stuff, and I have a Ph.D. in computer science. —Paul Graham, Founders at Work Now it’s time to install Ruby and Rails. I’ve done my best to cover as many bases as possible, but systems vary, and many things can go wrong during these steps. Be sure to Google the error message or consult the Rails Tutorial help page if you run into trouble. Unless otherwise noted, you should use the exact versions of all software used in the tutorial, including Rails itself, if you want the same results. Sometimes minor version differences will yield identical results, but you shouldn’t count on this, especially with respect to Rails versions. The main exception is Ruby itself: 1.9.2 and 1.9.3 are virtually identical for the purposes of this tutorial, so feel free to use either one.