# My First Steps with Docker: Learning by Doing

I recently decided to dive into Docker. At first, it felt a bit intimidating, so many commands, images, and containers! But after trying out a few tutorials and reading some practical guides on Vultr, things started to click.

In this post, I’ll share:

Why I started learning Docker
The first things I tried
Some tips for beginners

Why I Started Learning Docker

I wanted to:

Package my apps in a consistent environment
Avoid the “it works on my machine” problem
Get hands-on experience with modern DevOps tools

Docker is widely used, and it felt like a skill I couldn’t skip.

My First Docker Experiments

I installed Docker Desktop and ran a few commands:

docker --version       # check Docker installation
docker run hello-world # run the first container
docker ps -a           # list all containers
docker images          # list downloaded images

Seeing hello-world run for the first time was satisfying; the container ran immediately without needing any setup on my system.

How I Figured Things Out

While experimenting, I came across some guides on Vultr that explained common issues clearly. They helped me troubleshoot things like:

Containers not starting because of port conflicts
Understanding volume mounts
Cleaning up unused images and containers

These tips made the learning process much smoother.

Tips for Beginners

Start with simple images like hello-world or nginx
Experiment with ports and volumes
Use docker ps, docker logs, and docker rm to see what’s happening inside containers
Don’t hesitate to read practical guides — they save a lot of time

Final Thoughts

Docker felt overwhelming at first, but hands-on practice made it approachable. Now I feel more confident running containers and understanding how my apps behave across environments.

If you’re starting with Docker, try running a simple container today — it’s easier than it looks and very satisfying.