(Warning some Ubuntu ranting ahead)

    apt-get install virtualbox-ose
    apt-get install rubygems
    gem install vagrant

That's what I assumed it would take me to install vagrant on a spare Ubuntu (Natty) laptop.

Well it's not. after that I was greeted with some weirdness.

    $vagrant
    vagrant: command not found...

Yet gem list --local showed the vagrant gem installed.

    $ruby
    ruby: command not found

I looked twice, checked again and indeed it seems you can install rubygems on natty with no ruby installed #dazedandconfused

So unlike other distro's on Ubuntu doesn't add the rubygems binary path to it's default path
After adding that to my .bashrc things started working better.

The active reader has noticed that by now half of the Twittersphere was pointing me to the already implemented
above solution and the other half was telling me to not install rubygems using apt-get, or to use rvm for all my rubygem troubles

Apart from the point that if you need tools to like rvm to fix things that are fundamentally broken, the fact is that joe average java developer doens't want to be bothered with RubyGem hell , he just wants to do apt-get install Vagrant and get on with his real work, and that's exactly what I'd expect from Linux for human beings

I'd expect any junior guy to be able to go to vagrantup.com read the 4 commands on the main page and be up and running
Coz that's how it works on my Bleeding Edge Enterprise Development Distro, the one I usually would not advise those people (and my mother) to use.