diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix
index d1304af2724..cb965b594a4 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix
@@ -2,9 +2,10 @@
   , lib
   , zlib ? null
   , openssl ? null
+  , makeOverridable
 }:
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+makeOverridable (stdenv.mkDerivation) rec {
   version = "1.8.7-p72";
   name = "ruby-${version}";
   src = fetchurl {
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/gems.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/gems.nix
index d971ee22d65..8ccd839b77c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/gems.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/gems.nix
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 args : with args; 
 rec {
-  version = "1.2.0";
+
+  # some packages (eg ruby-debug) still require 1.8. So let's stick to that for
+  # now if nobody has different requirements
+
+  version = "1.3.4";
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = "http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/38646/rubygems-${version}.tgz";
-    sha256 = "0b9ppgs9av4z344s13wp40ki72prxyz3q0hmsf5swx7xhl54bbr8";
+    url = "http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/57643/rubygems-1.3.4.tgz";
+    sha256 = "1z5vvwdf7cwiq669amfxzqd88bn576yq6d9c5c6c92fm9sib1d0y";
   };
 
   buildInputs = [ruby makeWrapper];
@@ -22,6 +26,8 @@ rec {
     description = "Ruby gems package collection";
     longDescription = ''
       Example usage:
+      export GEM_HOME=~/.gem_home
+      export RUBYLIB=~/.nix-profile/lib
       gem install -i .ruby-gems json
       ruby -I ~/.ruby-gems/gems/json-1.1.3/lib your-script.rb
       Probably there are better ways to handle this all. Go on and fix it.
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/ruby-19.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/ruby-19.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4ebfd552ca4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/ruby-19.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{ ruby18, fetchurl }:
+
+ruby18.override rec {
+  version = "1.9.1-p129";
+  name = "ruby-${version}";
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.1-p129.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "0fr52j6xbrq3x4nr93azhz1zhlqb4dar7bi0f0iyqz6iw6naidr7";
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index eb4d198d81f..9874842b436 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -2299,9 +2299,11 @@ let
     inherit clisp stdenv fetchurl builderDefs unzip;
   };
 
-  ruby = import ../development/interpreters/ruby {
-    inherit fetchurl stdenv readline ncurses zlib lib openssl;
+  ruby18 = import ../development/interpreters/ruby {
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv readline ncurses zlib lib openssl makeOverridable;
   };
+  ruby19 = import ../development/interpreters/ruby/ruby-19.nix { inherit ruby18 fetchurl; };
+  ruby = ruby18;
 
   rake = import ../development/ruby-modules/rake {
     inherit fetchurl stdenv ruby ;