[Hominem]

•He uses Windows, or if he uses Mac or Linux, it’s without any working understanding of how the system works.

Aww. I know he isn't really knocking windows users. But using windows doesn't limit your ability to learn how to program.

[forkhammer]

Definitely not, and I cut my teeth with Ruby on Windows, way back when. You can learn on Windows, but it is so much easier on a *NIX machine. As I said in the supplemental article that I wrote to go with this piece:

> [If you choose to use Windows,] you need to understand that Rails—and indeed, most modern, cutting-edge programming stuff—is not meant for you. Accuse me of elitism, sure, but it’s a simple fact of the matter that many, if not most big-name programmers program on one of these two platforms (or some more extreme variant). You can program and do Rails on Windows, but you are swimming against the current. You are going to fight battles learning to program, so ask yourself: is using this operating system the battle you wish to fight? The correct answer is no, but you might have your reasons. Nevertheless, you can download and install a copy of Linux so amazingly easy these days that you’re making it hard if you choose not to.