Ruby for Newbie?!

[Scrumpy]

I want to learn a programming language.

I'm primarily looking for a langauge to develop web apps and cgi. I would 
also like to create GUI apps and perhaps use it for some network admin 
tasks. I'll create apps on, and for, Linux and MS Windows.

I'd narrowed down my choice to Python until I came across Ruby ;-)

Is there currently a Ruby equivalent of the following Python related tools, 
modules, libraries etc.:

1/ Tools to create standalone apps to ease distribution i.e. no need to 
have Ruby installed or to ensure no conflicts between the version of Ruby 
used to develop the app and a different installed version.

Python: Installer & py2exe.
RUBY: ?

2/ IDE.
Python: Boa Constructor, Pythonwin, IDLE.
RUBY: Practical Ruby (basic IDE for Windows). Is there a Linux IDE for 
Ruby?

3/ GUI toolkits/libraries. My preference is towards using wxWindows.
Python: wxPython, PyQt, PyGTK.
RUBY: ?

4/ Web platforms/frameworks etc.
Python: mod_snake, mod_python, Webware.
RUBY: mod_ruby - any comments about it's stability/suitability for web app 
development? Any Ruby equivalent to Webware and it's PHP like (psp) 
function?

5/ One file Interpreter i.e. to use on a shared hosting co.'s server that 
doesn't have Ruby installed.
Python: mxCGIPython (uses the freeze tool).
RUBY: ?

Is there an 'offical' Ruby binary for Windows? It looks like there are 
three unofficial ones created using three different compilers!

Finally, is there a good Ruby book aimed at newbie programmers (not 
existing programmers new to Ruby)?

Thanks,
Scrumpy :)

NOTE: I made a recent post on this newsgroup saying that I was selecting 
Python as my 1st language and that I hadn't received any response to posts 
I had made to comp.lang.ruby. Ironically, I received a post from a Ruby 
user who said he never saw my posts (faulty ISP or newsgroup!) so I'm 
reposting in both newsgroups. Apologizes to Pythoners.