I have started working on a webapp on Heroku. Heroku requires you to specify where your external gems come from. This is nice as you can specify a RubyForge, RubyGems, GitHub or any repository for that matter. However RubyGems is the de-facto gem host these days. All the gems on RubyGems have owners/co-owners and only they can update/upgrade the gem. Now what happens if you have a lazy gem owner who hasn’t updated the gem for over 2 years? You get an outdated gem. The only option is to update the gem yourself and host it elsewhere. Thats what made me create my custom gem server on Dreamhost.Continue reading