Introducing someone to web servers, Linux, and hosting a website can be difficult if they aren’t naturally inclined to learn about this sort of thing. Let’s face it, tech can absolutely be boring to someone. “Someone”, in this case, refers to my 9 year old daughter. She’s the type of person that would rather play pretend, draw, watch TV, play a mobile game, or just be outside. And that is absolutely lovely.
If you’ve historically used just Windows or MacOS based systems, you’ve likely become accustomed to accessing files/folders through a GUI (Graphical User Interface). You click on icon, which opens a window with moe icons, and you click from one icon to the next to get to the one that you want to interact with. Linux of course has this capability as well, but many environments, especially server environments, will not have a GUI desktop for you to ‘click’ around in.

Basic Security

Series: Linux For Newbies

Security is very complex topic. There’s a lot of things to take into consideration from who should have access to your system, to which methods it’s accessible from. For the sake of this post, I’m going to speak very broadly, addressing the bare minimums of security, and also from the perspective of running a Cloud-based server. Additionally, I’ll provide a link at the end to a guide with some recommended commands for performing these basic steps.

Linux Commands

Series: Linux For Newbies

Working from the command line may seem to be a challenge when you’re used to working from a GUI (Graphical User Interface). In essence, everything that happens when you click an icon or option in a GUI corresponds to a command that can be run from the terminal. In Linux, the command line is quite powerful as you are in direct control of anything that takes place, without the need for said command to be run by clicking on an icon.
Ubuntu? Debian? Centos? Arch? Kali? Bhodie? Which do I choose? What do these names even mean? I thought Linux was just called Linux. Just like “ice cream” is a type dessert, Linux also comes in just as many flavors. If you’re curious about the history of Linux, the Wikipedia article covers that pretty well. In a nutshell, if it isn’t Windows or MacOS, it’s probably some variety of Linux. This includes all of your smart speakers, networking devices, Android phones, and your Roku or Fire Stick.
To be quite frank… I don’t want to go anywhere. I really love my job, and hope to continue to grow where I’m at. I’ve considered what another career change might look like at this point in my life, and I don’t find the idea of starting over again enticing at all. I’m surrounded by great people, growth opportunity, and a comfortable situation. I’m happy to begin my shift each day, and I honestly don’t have to think about work at all when I punch out.
My time in Linode Support was amazing. I was learning so many new things on a daily basis through osmosis, and hungry for more. Every opportunity to help a colleague was exciting. Of course, most of my colleagues were well beyond my technical expertise early on. Nearly a year after being hired, we finally brought in a fresh group of Support hires. I was over the moon excited to share all of my institutional knowledge with them and pay forward all of the assistance I had gotten along the way.

Setting New Sights

Series: Journey To Tech

The first few months of the Support experience were a new challenge every day. Not a challenge in the sense of “ugh… another insurmountable task”, but on the contrary a new and exciting thing to conquer. I was surrounded by really smart people that were always trying to better themselves and the team around them. Starting this job during the COVID lockdown created a unique dynamic, however. These people know each other.

What's a Linux?

Series: Journey To Tech

The first few days of training were much like drinking from a fire hose. Not only did I have no experience with Linux, I had no experience with MacOS either. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not tech illiterate. Between consumer electronics and mobile phone sales, I have always been surrounded by tech in some form. There was a time where I went to a tech school and actually knew Windows really well.
The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic were wild for a myriad of reasons. Beside all of the misinformation, panic, and political grandstanding; brick and mortar business really didn’t know what to do with themselves. At the time I worked for a major phone carrier. Despite how I describe the evils of the business, they did actually do a great job taking care of folks whose stores were forced to close for a period of time.