I got myself a new 8 gig USB key and I'm looking for a decent solution to have a portable RoR environment to learn on. I did the google on it and found a few possibilities, but I'm curious to hear some real life experiences and opinions. Thanks!
I like InstantRails, very easy to use, no installer, and does not modify your system environment.
InstantRails was replaced by [BitNami RubyStack] in 2007.
How to create a portable environment based on RubyInstaller's binaries and Development kit:
http://hcettech.blogspot.pt/2012/05/windows-portable-rails-development.html
Setting up a portable install of Cygwin would be a good choice.
You'll have a full *nix environment which would give you endless possibilities. You could easily have Ruby, Rails, Mongrel (or whatever server of choice) as well as a really good editor at your disposal as well. I would recommend VIM with this Rails specific VIM configuration (fantastic looks and feel!).
I currently have a similar setup running Cygwin off a jump drive. I use it mostly for the bash shell, VIM, and using tail to monitor development log files with its nicely color coded syntax.
I found this, and I intend to give it a go this evening: Flash Rails
Assuming you're on Windows, I'd go for Instant Rails and Netbeans (with a JVM for Netbeans).
Netbeans is a bit heavy-weight, but it supports lots of nice rails focused IDE features and is the best IDE for Rails on Windows IMO.
You'll get all of that on a lot less than 1 gig.
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/258801/portable-ruby-on-rails-environment