I am about to purchase a laptop strictly for development (ruby &
rails) and then leverage my existing large screen monitor with it when
in the office. Laptop monitor for running tests, large screen for
development etc. Wondering what the consensus is now on most ideal
environment for rails at this point? Macbook pro + textmate? Pc with
unbuntu + vim(or whatever)? what are most professional rails shops
using at this point? Any good articles on the pros and cons of each
enviro? I suspect most are using the apple environment and for good
reason but before I make the sale I wanted to see what everyone
thinks. thanks
There is no « consensus » on the good environment for developping in
rails. This is a matter of … and cost ! A MacBook is a fantastic
computer but is it costs at least six times the price of a basic Dell
Inspiron 15 (for example), which could also fit to your needs.
In my mind, if you only want to run a text editor and some ruby
scripts, there is no need for a macBook. An y recent laptop with any
Unix OS will do what you want.
use whatever you are most comfortable with. mac/textmate is a good
combo. linux/kate is IMHO good, too. even windows might be alright for
some people. there are people outthere that prefer to use an IDE.
there are many around and some of them run on most OS.
personally, i like linux better than mac, because i’ve been using it
for my desktop-pc at home for a very long time. i got used to its look
and feel and love the console.
mac is alright, too. textmate is a great editor with tons of plugins.
once you get accustomed to a mac, it’s actually really nice to work
with.
the main thing is: you should feel good using whatever tools or
operating systems. as i already said in another (very similar thread):
i don’t think it’s a very good idea to try to learn how to use a new
operating system whilst trying to master a new language/framework. so
if you are a beginner, my advance would be: don’t change whatever you
are running (maybe later).
Have you considered a Linux VM?
I have XP as the main OS because it the corporate way (e-mail, office,
etc), but all the Rails work in done with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS running under
VMWare - Eclipse Ganymede works fine as my Rails editor. Now if I could
just get it to understand HAML, I’d be all set.
I agree 100 percent with these posts. Unfortunately I am currently
using windoze + e-text editor and command line for most work and it
has been fine for basic learning etc. but it is clearly time to move
up and on because of ruby/rails. So either way I will be dealing with
some new ground either unbuntu on a PC (cheaper) or a mac. I have
taken some classes lately and been trying to collaborate with other
rails guys and mac seems to be across the board but that could just be
who I have sat with. I am ok with a mac or unbuntu on a PC but wanted
to get a sense of what most professional environments would be using
in the rails community too. I would hate to be ultra comfortable with
one and find out that my first Rails job tends to use something else
entirely particularly if it was easy to vet out up front. I am sure
either is fine, its what you prefer, I was just trying to take the
temperature to see if 90 percent said mac or maybe in the real world
75 percent were actually using a pc with some unix distro
I do all development and deployment on variations of Ubuntu. I run
8.10 on my desktop, 8.04.2 on my laptop, and 8.10 Server on my
development server. I use Vim exclusively and it works well for me.
My recommendation is to give Ubuntu a try if you are looking at a PC
and see how you like it.
AgileHack,
I work in an in-house Rails shop for a fairly large site (we are a
team of about 7 developers, not including operations and QA). We use
OSX on PowerMacs and Mac Minis with Textmate and git. Some are
starting to poke around with MacVim and others swear by Netbeans.
Secondly, everyone uses OSX for dev personally except for one guy who
uses Debian.
Largely, everyone chooses OSX and Macs, its not a forced decision. All
the vendors who come in to staff augment or work on other projects
from respectable Ruby/Rails shops always show up with Macbooks.
For what it’s worth, I don’t use a MacBook pro, never have. I think
they are too much $$ for RoR dev. I use a bottom of the line with
extra RAM.
H
thanks everyone- that was helpful