Ruby on Rails development setup on Ubuntu 12.04 System update # change mirror to ubuntu.osuosl.org first sudo apt-get update Install common libraries sudo apt-get install build-essential zlib1g-dev git-core sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev Install all the things sudo apt-get install vim gitg tmux Generate SSH keys ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your_email@youremail.com" Add public key to github then test it out with this ssh -T git@github.com Set global git identity git config --global user.name "John Doe" git config --global user.email "your_email@youremail.com" Set default text editor for git git config --global core.editor vim Set git status colors git config --global color.diff auto git config --global color.status auto git config --global color.branch auto git config --global color.status.changed yellow git config --global color.status.added green git config --global color.status.untracked red Verify git settings git config --list Install javascript runtime for rails projects sudo apt-get install nodejs