My personal preference is actually for FreeBSD -- which is substantially
similar, from a typical end-user's point of view, to Linux. There are
some significant differences once you get past the surface, though, and
it is these differences that make up most of my reason for preferring it.
I still prefer something like Debian GNU/Linux over MS Windows by far,
though.
My recommendations are as follows:
1. If you want to just get into Rails and not have to worry about
anything else, stick with MS Windows for now. If you make an OS switch
at the same time, and you don't have any other reasons for the switch
than to support your Rails development, you should put off
investigating a different OS until you feel like you are willing to
just devote some time to that.
2. If you want to learn Ruby itself, and you aren't specifically trying
to learn it for MS Windows development, I think that a Unix-like OS
such as a BSD Unix or Linux-based OS can be one of your best friends.
It is much easier to get started writing simple, but *useful*, little
automation tools (e.g., shell scripts and similar) in a Unix-like
environment than in the relentlessly CLI-hostile environment of MS
Windows.
3. Give something Unix-like a try *eventually*. Even MacOS X can help
in this regard, though it costs a hell of a lot more to experiment with
MacOS X than with something like Debian GNU/Linux or FreeBSD (since
with MacOS X you not only don't get a free OS, but also have to buy
hardware specific to the OS).
There are "easy" introductions to Unix-like OSes, such as Ubuntu Linux,
PC-BSD, and DesktopBSD, if you want to try making a complete switch to a
Unix-like OS in one shot. If you want to take a more gradual approach,
though, I'd recommend doing something like what I originally did. I got
a KVM switch, and connected two computers to it side-by-side on my desk.
One was my main MS Windows system, and one was a far older Debian system.
The KVM swich allowed me to quickly and easily -- and almost seamlessly,
without any reboots or changes of peripheral hardware -- switch between
the two systems. I could learn the Linux-based system at my leisure,
getting into really understanding the system rather than just sticking
some gooey (GUI) fat-interface OS on it like Mandrake (Ubuntu didn't even
exist then, let alone Mandriva).
After a while, I got fed up with some issues with Debian, and made the
move to FreeBSD. Along the way, I've tried out a number of other Linux
distributions and BSD Unix systems, in some cases professionally, but in
terms of OS-of-choice, I've gone MS Windows -> Debian -> FreeBSD. The
move from MS Windows to Debian was the most shocking, in several ways,
though probably the most shocking part of it was the sudden realization
one day that I had gone from thinking of the slower, older Debian box as
a toy to play with to using it constantly without even turning on the MS
Windows system for a couple of months -- without even noticing the
change.
I hope that helps answer some of your explicit and implicit questions.
···
On Mon, Feb 09, 2009 at 05:09:15PM +0900, priyankeshu wrote:
I just started learnign Rails and i think it's quite cool! I have just
done some basic stuff till now
i was talking to some professional guy who was working in ruby On
Rails for last 1 year and he said that it would be better if i switch
to linux...
My purpose of learning RoR is to create websites with Google maps
Mashups and social network sites..
i don't have a very extensive knowledge of programming...
right now i have aptana radrails installed ... i am happy with it ...
Should i stick with Windows ... or it would be better to switch to
Linux ?
--
Chad Perrin [ content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
Quoth Larry Wall: "What is the sound of Perl? Is it not the sound of a
wall that people have stopped banging their heads against?"