<p>In Python, you can do this:</p>

<pre><code>import webbrowser
webbrowser.open_new("http://example.com/")
</code></pre>

<p>It will open the passed in url in the default browser</p>

<p>Is there a ruby equivalent?</p>

Windows Only Solution:
```
```
require 'win32ole'
shell = WIN32OLE.new('Shell.Application')
shell.ShellExecute(...)
```
```
Shell Execute on MSDN