[ale] Computer build requirements list

[Leam Hall]

On Thu, Aug 27, 2020 at 7:20 AM Jerald Sheets <questy at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Aug 26, 2020, at 7:48 PM, Leam Hall via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
> >  My plan is to do Coursera courses on
> > C and OS stuff, and run containers locally in Dev mode before putting
> > them up on AWS. Though the container mission might get put onto
> > another machine. I'd like this one to be lower impact.
>
> DockerHub?

While there are several good container alternatives (Digital Ocean,
Google App Engine, Hashicorp, Heroku), AWS has the market share in my
work domain. So doing a container locally and then putting it in AWS
is part of the learning plan.

Realistically, I'd probably do application stuff instead of OS/Kernel
stuff. Still, it's nice to be able to build and tune my own kernel.

> > CPU/Cores/RAM: It would be nice to have multiple CPUs and multiple
> > cores per CPU, mostly in case I head to that sort of programming. With
> > 2 CPUs and 4 cores, the old machine had 8GB or RAM and was fast
> > enough. Since I do TDD, being able to run tests quickly is nice.
> > Prefer AMD to Intel.
>
> Honestly, man… Digital Ocean’s $5/mo droplet looks like your choice for a dev workstation.  Pre-pay the whole year and have it out of your hair.

I prefer in-house dev environments; it let's me build my Ansible
skills setting them up, and I already have to have some hardware
anyway.

> Second, add Udemy and Linux Academy if you can afford it.  I just passed CSA Assoc and Practitioner in the last 3 weeks.  I prepared for Practitioner for a week and tested then assoc. for like 2 weeks and sat for the test.
>
> Test scores running mid-80%.  Linux Academy for the training lectures and example quizzes. Udemy for test batteries (usually a grouping of 5) and the company has LI learning if I want a different kind of lecture in case I wasn’t “getting” what was being said.

Had not known about Linux Academy, nice! Udemy has several AWS courses, too.

> > Economy: Not sure what the cost level will be. Recommendations on "best bang for buck" appreciated.
>
> With the above in place, you can truly have a “commodity” machine at home like a Chromebook or small-ish off-the-shelf computer from Wal-Mart even.

Part of the process is building the "rebuilding" skills. I'm currently
using Ansible to set up the developer workstation, and mostly forcing
myself to use it for the rebuild I'm currently in.  :)