[dragonwriter]

> Semi-related: does anyone know why installing gems is so ridiculously slow? What is the thing doing? Downloading tarballs, yes, but then? It's a dynamic language; there is no compilation or verification!

Source gems that include C extensions may well have compilation; there is also, IIRC, automatic doc generation in the usual, default gem installation.

> Why can I install Ruby packages using apt almost immediately, when gem/bundle install takes half a coffee break?

Because the apt packages are prebuilt for your OS and architecture, they don't need to resolve platform constraints, possibly build after download, and do doc generation after download.