Help for Newbie

I'm going down a sort of similar road. I've been developing software for 10+ years, but only now have I begun thinking about switching from doing server-side/mid-tier stuff to more cutting edge web development. I'm a long way from any sort of expert on anything, but I think my advice will be ok for a noob.

First, and maybe most obvious would be to learn HTML and CSS. :slight_smile:

And Javascript.

You can develop Rails on windows, but I'm not aware of any ISP that runs Rails on Windows.

Developing Rails apps on windoze in no way prevents you from deploying to something else. I develop my personal Rails apps on a Mac and deploy to a Gentoo Linux box for example.

If you don't already have it, get the 2nd edition (right now only available as a PDF) of the Agile Web Development with Rails book from the Pragmatic Programmers website. It's the single best reference to start with.

Ruby for Rails by David Black is very beginner level also.