The first real collision with DevOps usually isn't Kubernetes. Or Terraform. Or that YAML file that looks like it was written by someone with strong feelings against indentation.

The first collision is usually less heroic: you try to prepare your environment, open a terminal, see three different ways to “use Linux,” someone mentions SSH keys, someone else says “just use WSL,” another person says “spin up a cloud instance,” and suddenly installing a few tools feels like choosing a mortgage.

Should you use local Linux? A VM? WSL? AWS? GCP? Will your laptop explode? No. Unless you run too many browser tabs while VirtualBox is trying to breathe. But conceptually, no.

This lesson sets up a serious working environment for the course: real enough to learn DevOps properly, simple enough that you don't spend three days configuring the workshop before touching a single tool.

What a DevOps learning environment actually needs

A DevOps environment does not need to look like production from minute one.…