[DanielN]

This. I often tutor beginners wanting to learn to code and environment setup is by far the biggest hurdle. Frankly, think about the last time you started learning a new language, it's usually the biggest hurdle for experienced programmers as well.

The next biggest hurdle for beginners is usually grasping basic design patterns or the request response pattern of client server interaction. This is usually difficult because a lot of the nomenclature isn't there yet. But that is nothing in comparison to the struggle it is to walk someone through basic environment setup for RoR even node.