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What advice can you give to a beginner?
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024
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Learn how to use Docker containers
Came here to write exactly this. It's a steep learning curve but well worthwhile. Although I'd specify and say: learn docker compose.
Edit: what I ment was learn docker cli tools (command line tools) and use Docker compose that way. It gives you a much better understanding of how Docker actually works behind the scene while still keeping it high level
Docker? Steep learning curve? You drunk mate?
When it comes to software the hype is currently setup a minimal Linux box (old computer, NAS, Raspberry Pi) and then install everything using Docker containers. I don’t like this Docker trend because it 1) leads you towards a dependence on property repositories and 2) robs you from the experience of learning Linux (more here) but I it does lower the bar to newcomers and let’s anyone setup something really fast.
In my opinion people should be very skeptical about everything that is “sold to the masses”, just go with a simple Debian system (command line only) SSH into it and install whatever is required / taking the time to actually learn Linux and whatnot.
I'd like to point out this is a hot take.
Enterprise infrastructure has been moving to containers for years because of scale and redundancy. Spinning up new VMs for every app failover is bloat and wasteful if it is able to be put in a container.
To really use them well, like everything in IT, understanding the underlying tech can be essential.
Yes, that’s a valid use case. But the enterprise is also moving to containers because the big tech companies are pushing them into it. What people forget is that containerization also makes splitting hardware and billing customers very easy for cloud providers, something that was a real pain before. Why do you think that google, Microsoft and Amazon never got into the infrastructure business before?
Amazon was in the infrastructure business well before containers were the "big thing".
You're missing the point.
What are you even claiming? Billing is the same ease VM or container.
Cgroups became a thing in 2004 and then Google and Amazon started container offerings in 2008.
And you don't even need docker there are plenty of alternative engines.
Before containers, when hosting was mostly shared stuff (very hard to bill and very expensive when it comes to support) or VMs that people wouldn't buy because they were expensive.
Hmm I should maybe have added that I only ever touched docker cli tools and have never used a front end of any kind. I do know that they exists, but I like having my fingers in the mechanical room so to speak so it gave me a quite steep learning curve writing my own docker compose files from scratch and learning the syntax, environment variables and volumes working manually. I still to this day only use cli version of Docker because its the only thing I ever learned.
But you know that most people don't even do that. They simply download a bunch of pre-made yaml files and use whatever GUI. You would still learn more without docker.
I can see that quickly becoming an issue if people just run random yaml files without understanding the underlying functions. I'm happy I never took that route because I leaned so much
Is there a good resource for this?
I learned it from trying an error, look for Docker documentation and you can start self hosting something like NextCloud or Jellyfin. Any software which have a Docker image can work for you to learn. You can use "AI" like Bing if you have any doubt too
This course might be an overkill for a home server, but here's my recommendation: https://www.udemy.com/course/docker-kubernetes-the-practical-guide/?couponCode=ST15MT31224 - it covers stuff from basic manually typed commands to kubernetes and aws.
Kubernetes is more than overkill for home use. I would say there's no point in ever touching it if you're only in self hosting as a hobby.
I use it for my home services but that's because I also use it at work and understand it well. It is absolutely not something that a beginner should touch, especially if "docker" is a new term to them.
Sweet been interested in this myself. Thank you