Is hosting a Ruby application on Windows Server a viable setup? [closed]
Yes, it's viable. Check out some of these helpful resources and articles that offer a variety of ways to get started with Rails on Windows:
- http://www.helicontech.com/zoo/
- http://vagrantup.com/
- http://www.engineyard.com/blog/2011/jruby-on-windows
- http://www.engineyard.com/blog/2011/jruby-win32ole-and-vagrant-on-windows
- http://railsinstaller.org/
- http://chocolatey.org/packages?q=ruby
As discussed in the JRuby on Windows article linked above, it's important that Windows developers get involved, so don't give up! Give it a go and share your experiences via a blog, here on SoF or on GitHub. When Rails was first born, deployment was a bit of a nightmare on any platform, so much so that entire books were written about it. Given the state of play now, and the obstacles that have been overcome through the sheer tenacity and ingenuity of the community, there's no reason why Ruby and Rails can't live and thrive on Windows.
If you specifically want to seek out folks with lots of Ruby on Windows expertise, I'd highly recommend the RubyInstaller group. They're a really friendly, dedicated bunch.
You might also be in need of an editor for Windows. I personally use Sublime Text 2, but there are others that might take your fancy:
If the marriage of Ruby/RoR and Windows is a must, I would recommend going with JRuby and an application server of preference (e.g. Tomcat). MRI based application on Windows might be a pain to maintain.