Should I be worried about RVM's Ruby 1.8.7 warning?
To what extent should I be worried about the following warning that is displayed after installing Ruby 1.8.7-head via RVM:
Remember you just installed ruby, which requires 2 patches just to compile on an updated Linux system. This may be known and unreported for security vulnerabilities.
Yes. Someone thought it was important enough to write what people read. Ruby is a fast language and 1.8.7 is almost dead. I would suggest 1.9.2 if you like something a little slower, or 1.9.3 if you like living on the edge.
It depends what you are using it for. We use rvm to create 1.8.7 series rubies so that we can evolve on a recent OS but deploy conservatively. For example, the ruby on Debian Squeeze is ruby-1.8.7-p302, and it's important for us to know that our code works there as written, regardless of which OS we develop separately. In this case, I would ignore this warning.
If you are using RVM to enforce ruby production I would pay more attention.
If you really need 1.8.7, but want a slightly more updated and optimized version, you can check out the REE http://www.rubyenterpriseedition.com/