0.2 What you need before Chapter 1
You do not need a company laptop. A normal student setup is enough.
On your computer
- A laptop or desktop (Windows, macOS or Linux) with a browser.
- A free GitHub account (sign up at github.com).
- Git installed locally, or readiness to use GitHub Codespaces in the browser.
- A text editor such as VS Code (optional but useful).
In the cloud (for later labs)
- One small practice VM (for example an Amazon EC2 instance from the AWS course).
- Ability to SSH into that VM and stop it when you finish.
We do not repeat EC2 launch steps here. Follow the AWS course chapter on Amazon EC2 when you need a VM. Keep costs low: stop or terminate idle labs.
Accounts and secrets
| Keep | Never put in Git |
|---|---|
| Public repo for practice code | AWS access keys, .pem private keys |
| GitHub login | Database passwords, API tokens |
| Public docs and READMEs | .env files with real secrets |
Cost and safety
Cloud VMs cost money while they run. Stop or terminate lab instances when you finish for the day. Set a billing alert in your cloud account on day one. Never paste cloud access keys into a GitHub repository — even a private one can leak. Later chapters use safer patterns such as IAM roles and GitHub OIDC.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
Khup students AWS access key GitHub madhe paste kartat "thoda vel sathi". Ekda history madhe gela ki to key rotate karava lagto. Lab sathi IAM role / temporary credentials vapra; keys kadhihi git add karu naka. Bilkul visru naka.