37 Signals just announced Pow, a configuration-free, OSX version of the Ruby Web server interface Rack. Pow makes it easy for developers to install Ruby applications on their local machines without editing Apache configurations or installing gems. Pow can be installed or updated simply by curling a script.
Pow also eliminates the need to edit /etc/hosts to run Rack apps. Instead, apps can just be symlinked it into ~/.pow.
According to the site, “With full support for rvm and Bundler, Pow makes it simple to run multiple apps at once, each with its own version of Ruby and its own set of gems.”
Some users at Hacker News are skeptical about the use of a remote script to install the application.
Another commenter at Hacker News pointed to Phusion Passenger Standalone, which also enables users to easily run Rack applications with little no configuration.
Pow was written in Node.js using CoffeeScript. The source code can be found on Github.
