Stage 1 of 7 · 10 lessons · ~3 months

Linux, the shell and scripting

Everything in DevOps runs on Linux and is driven from a terminal. Get fluent with the shell, basic administration and Bash before touching any cloud.

Start: The filesystem, files and permissions

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

Start with· follow one of these

CourseFree
The Missing Semester of Your CS Education
MIT · Beginner
Shell, scripting, data wrangling, SSH and Git in a dozen focused lectures
BookFree
The Linux Command Line
William Shotts · Beginner
Free book: permissions, processes, packages and longer shell scripts, chapter by chapter

Practise

OverTheWire: Bandit
A free wargame where every level has to be solved with real shell commands

Keep handy

tldr pages
The handful of flags people actually use for each command, one line each

Also worth your time

Comparing DevOps, SRE, Platform Engineering, and Software Engineering (opens in a new tab)Read
How the DevOps, SRE and platform roles differ, so you know which one you are aiming at
Automate the Boring Stuff with PythonGo deeper
Free: the Python to reach for when a Bash script outgrows itself

Before moving on: Set up a fresh Ubuntu virtual machine, create users with the right permissions, and schedule a Bash script with cron that backs up a directory and reports disk usage, all kept in a Git repository.

Tauseef's advice

Use Linux as your daily environment for this stage, a VM or WSL is fine, because reading about the shell does not stick. Write Bash for anything short and switch to Python the moment a script needs real error handling or data structures.