I just found out about The Odin Project, a self-paced online course to learn full stack web development. There are two paths: one is Ruby on Rails and the other is full JavaScript and nodejs. I am leaning more towards Ruby but I wanted to get some more opinions from folks in the field.
Thank you! Then it sounds like the more sensible path is JavaScript and nodejs. While I like the idea of personal challenge, I am trying to learn how to do this so I can get out of the skullduggery of my present career as a senior desktop support engineer. I see myself more going towards DevOps with it. From the reading I did about DevOps, it seems that I would need at least some familiarity with a programing language. I am thinking if I could get a handle on JavaScript and python, I would be in pretty good shape, yes?
I’m currently a security and DevOps engineer.
DevOps is really just a fancy word for a sysadmin you can ask to code and that knows enough programming to work IAC tools.
If your goal is devOps, learning to code at all is of course the first step, but afterwards I would tend more towards learning the basics of CI/CD, python (because if you know python you can learn other languages quickly) and a healthy dose of cloud environment and IAC tools like terraform and Ansible.
DevOps is usually more backend or full stack (though in bigger companies it’s its own job entirely).
Python is always a good start in that regard. But honestly, the basics for programming are pretty much the same across languages (with a few exceptions). So you could go with JavaScript, C#, Python, … whatever beginner friendly language you prefer.
This course gets you started extremely fast (Python, but in your browser, so no need to install anything): https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python-3
Personally for a learning language and if you’re using Windows I’d lean towards C# (With Visual Studio Community, it’s free). It does give you a good idea of what data types, classes, etc. are and if you want to dive deeper you can transition to C++ afterwards to learn about memory management and pointers (but it’s not a fun language to work with, in my personal opinion).
As for DevOps, you could do the first courses for Azure (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/microsoft-azure-fundamentals-describe-cloud-concepts/) or AWS (https://skillbuilder.aws/?dt=sec&sec=fdt).
If you have any questions, feel free to ask :)
Just FYI: There’s a little star icon you can click. It will put posts and comments in your profile under “Saved” :)
Hey! Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed comment. Yes, I truly appreciate the advice. That much said, I am more interested in the free and open source side of computing. I am sick and tired of Microsoft and want to pivot away from them. I get enjoyment out of Linux and the command line; real satisfaction and fun. Nevertheless, I am going to check out the AWS stuff! 😺
Oh and I didn’t answer your original question: If you have to select between Ruby and JavaScript, 100% go with the JavaScript course :)
Though DevOps and “free” or “open source” doesn’t really mix. The moment you touch DevOps you’ll either land at Amazon (AWS) or Azure (Microsoft) or Google (Google Cloud).
Sure, in theory you could set up your own servers with your own clusters, but then you’re a system administrator and not DevOps.
Btw. Azure might be Microsoft, but they have plenty of Linux options on there, it’s not a Windows shop at all.
