The latest articles on DEV Community by mike (@hansomike). https://dev.to/hansomike https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F140750%2Fc51c1603-2ddf-4d95-9a90-3347e7bb0bfb.jpg https://dev.to/hansomike en mike Tue, 25 Nov 2025 13:31:58 +0000 https://dev.to/hansomike/i-built-my-devops-portfolio-on-a-killercoda-ubuntu-playground-and-it-transformed-my-learning-99k https://dev.to/hansomike/i-built-my-devops-portfolio-on-a-killercoda-ubuntu-playground-and-it-transformed-my-learning-99k <h1> Why Every DevOps Engineer Should Deploy Their First Portfolio on Killercoda </h1> <p>Most DevOps tutorials begin with AWS, GCP, or Kubernetes.</p> <p>But here’s my honest advice:<br><br> Start with <strong>Killercoda’s Ubuntu playground</strong> instead.</p> <p>🔗 <a href="https://killercoda.com/playgrounds/scenario/ubuntu" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://killercoda.com/playgrounds/scenario/ubuntu</a></p> <p>I recently deployed my full DevOps portfolio website using nothing but this environment and Nginx — and it was one of the most valuable hands-on exercises I’ve done.</p> <p>Here is the live server running my site:</p> <p>🔗 <a href="https://411913816ee7-10-244-13-238-80.spch.r.killercoda.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://411913816ee7-10-244-13-238-80.spch.r.killercoda.com/</a></p> <h2> Why this matters </h2> <p>When you deploy on Killercoda, you learn the fundamentals that cloud providers hide behind fancy panels:</p> <ul> <li>creating and securing directories </li> <li>Configuring Nginx from scratch </li> <li>troubleshooting server errors </li> <li>managing processes manually </li> <li>deploying changes without automation crutches </li> </ul> <p>It’s the closest experience to running a real Linux server — without paying for one.</p> <h2> My recommendation </h2> <p>If you're a beginner DevOps engineer or trying to build confidence:<br><br> <strong>Forget the cloud for a moment.<br><br> Deploy something raw.<br><br> Learn the ground truth.</strong></p> <p>Your terminal will become your greatest teacher.</p> ubuntu linux cloud technology