I’m proud to announce the launch of the first e-tailer to go life with Rails Inside: Snowdevil. Especially so because the team behind it has core contributor Tobias Luekte at the technical wheel and because the site just looks cool and sells something as cool as snowboards.

It took Tobias and crew just under four months to produce the application that KLOCs in at around 6. In addition to the launch of Snowdevil, the team is looking to extract a platform for creating shops quicker with Rails. So if you’re looking into starting a shop project on Rails, you should have a chat with Tobias and see if that’s a platform that might be right for you.

Tobias posted a post-launch announcement on his blog (also powered by Rails) where he attributes the success of the project to Ruby on Rails and their TDD/XP practices. The flattering bit about Rails:

I consider the unveiling of Rails as one of the biggest jumps in productivity the computer industry has seen since it moved from assembler to high level languages. This is the time where small businesses can compete or outperform big businesses just because of better tools. You need to be as efficient as a team? No problem! By the end of the year most companies worth a damn will use Rails or a clone of it. Be ahead of the curve.

Tobias, who is also known as xal on IRC, is certainly doing his part to further Rails as well. If you look through the changelogs, you’ll notice just how busy he has been over the past couple of months bringing the framework further.

So. Do shop your next snowboard at Snowdevil. Do talk to Tobias and crew if you’re looking to get a jumpstart on your Rails-powered shop or e-commerce project.