Open the default browser in Ruby

Mac-only solution:

system("open", "http://stackoverflow.com/")

or

`open http://stackoverflow.com/`

This should work on most platforms:

link = "Insert desired link location here"
if RbConfig::CONFIG['host_os'] =~ /mswin|mingw|cygwin/
  system "start #{link}"
elsif RbConfig::CONFIG['host_os'] =~ /darwin/
  system "open #{link}"
elsif RbConfig::CONFIG['host_os'] =~ /linux|bsd/
  system "xdg-open #{link}"
end

Cross-platform solution:

First, install the Launchy gem:

$ gem install launchy

Then, you can run this:

require 'launchy'

Launchy.open("http://stackoverflow.com")