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Ruby Installing a Ruby Development Environment Installing a Ruby Development Environment Installing the Treehouse VM on Mac

Michael Kuntz
Michael Kuntz
5,815 Points
Posted by Michael Kuntz
Michael Kuntz
5,815 Points

Do we need to install this virtual machine in addition to installing ruby on our mac, or is it optional?

I have already followed the video for installing ruby, rbenv, etc on my mac. I didn't know if this video for the virtual machine is supposed to be installed as well, or if it's optional?

2 Answers

Maciej Czuchnowski
Maciej Czuchnowski
36,441 Points
Maciej Czuchnowski
Maciej Czuchnowski
36,441 Points

It's optional, you can choose between using VM or installing everything on your own. Both options have their ups and downs.

Michael Kuntz
Michael Kuntz
5,815 Points
Michael Kuntz
Michael Kuntz
5,815 Points

Ok, I'll stick with the install I did on my Mac. If you don't mind... what are the ups & downs of each method?

Maciej Czuchnowski
Maciej Czuchnowski
36,441 Points
Maciej Czuchnowski
Maciej Czuchnowski
36,441 Points

They have different VMs for each of the Rails courses, with everything installed in proper versions (so you won't have problems with differences between Rails 3 and 4 for example). This saves a lot of headaches, but at the same time, if you don't encounter errors, in the long run you may have problems with debugging your apps in the future (you know, like germs make your organism stronger sometimes). If you choose your own installation, you will have to learn a lot more and do more debugging, but it will make you future-proof and immune to a lot of errors. It will take longer and sometimes you may feel like giving up, but it's the better way in my personal opinion (prepare for a lot of googling, customizing your gem collections and using forums to get help with errors, here and stack overflow) ;).

Michael Kuntz
Michael Kuntz
5,815 Points
Michael Kuntz
Michael Kuntz
5,815 Points

Thanks for the info. Challenge accepted!

Kelvin Atawura
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Kelvin Atawura
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 19,022 Points
Kelvin Atawura
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Kelvin Atawura
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 19,022 Points

Maciej Czuchnowski you seem to know a lot but total lost me lol. Come down abit for new developer like us. totally got confused with organisms lol. so which of the method would l have problems debugging in the future?please

Maciej Czuchnowski
Maciej Czuchnowski
36,441 Points
Maciej Czuchnowski
Maciej Czuchnowski
36,441 Points

The virtual machine theoretically will give you everything you need, out of the box :). You will be able to do stuff right away and you will get less errors and problems compared to setting up your own environment. But one day, you will have to get through installing your own environment anyway, your employer will not give a you a virtual machine with everything pre-installed (I suppose). So the choice is yours :)