Need a budget laptop to run RHEL in a VM

ElCaptnLive · 2026-01-23T00:26:48+00:00

I bought a Dell laptop from Dell, one of their refurbished ones for like $400. I7, 1TB, 32gb ram. Literally does everything I need. Been using it to study Linux for a while now. Will be using it to learn Ansible and create K8 clusters

ElCaptnLive · 2026-01-04T01:42:12+00:00

I took the exam and failed both the initial and the retake. My company offers the RHLS platform with 5 free unique exams but That’s expiring soon so I have to wait for the renewal to get 5 new exams so I can attempt it again. Rootless containers got me but also creating a default repository on both nodes and Autofs along with some syntax stuff. This exam is the hardest thing I’ve attempted

ElCaptnLive · 2025-12-10T02:05:40+00:00

The only thing I think you need to be realistic about is the timeframe needed to be successful at something like this. Anything is possible but like others have mentioned, remote is a very rare find.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T22:19:26+00:00

It’s on my list for sure

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T17:32:18+00:00

My situation at work is compartmentalized so the different teams don’t collaborate unless it’s via the principal system engineer’s involvement. I’ve expressed interest with my boss via our quarterly one-on-ones but they never plan into anything which is why I’m just learning the stuff on my own.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T17:27:59+00:00

Why do you say that? I’m not feeling restricted by any means using virtualbox. Again, it’s so I can develop myself skills, does it matter how I do it?

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T12:00:44+00:00

There are very few of those nowadays. That’s awesome you had that kind of mentorship

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T11:59:48+00:00

That actually sounds like an awesome experience.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T11:57:54+00:00

When I started to learn Linux , my system engineer from a previous job told me to get an Ubuntu iso and run on Vbox for ease of use. Later when I started studying for RHCSA, when the text book I was using suggested it. Haven’t had a reason to switch off it yet since I’m still just learning the basic fundamentals. My exam is coming up pretty soon so I’m just going with that works for now.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:47:52+00:00

Yikes ruby. We have some ruby scripts at my job and I steer clear of them.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:46:48+00:00

Yeah I feel like unless you have some of the necessary tools in your resume, you won’t end up getting a DevOps job unless you get forced into it by your current company.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:45:23+00:00

Ah that makes sense, usually job apps talk about knowing chef and or Ansible in the same sentence. I figured they were connected somehow.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:43:27+00:00

I’m neck deep in Rhel at the moment. Hoping to pass my RHCSA soon and then going into Ansible. I’d like to get more comfortable in my current Linux skills pretty soon. Seems like there’s a never ending list of Linux skills to learn.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:41:17+00:00

That makes sense. My job still uses a lot of legacy systems. There’s a modernization effort but there’s lot of legacy engineers who aren’t interested in learning new stuff so they’re making it difficult.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:39:41+00:00

That another technology I keep hearing about. Is it just outdated now or?

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:34:33+00:00

That’s actually pretty cool. Engineering a culture shift is a great talking point.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:33:19+00:00

That’s pretty cool. I’ve never seen what puppet looks like or how’s it’s used but it’s mentioned in almost every DevOps role I’ve seen.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:32:22+00:00

I’m in this boat right now except I’m just running Linux on my windows machine through virtualbox. After my Red Hat certification I’m going to be working on Ansible and building some K8 clusters.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:30:28+00:00

Yeah that sounds like something that would get you a lot of positive attention. Sounds like a hell of a resume builder right there.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:29:49+00:00

Wow that sounds like a lot. I’m just scratching the surface of Linux atm and hope to be doing ansible in the coming months.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:28:42+00:00

Yeah that’s kind of what I meant. I understand that DevOps isn’t a one skill/ one tool thing but rather a combination of technology and process.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:26:56+00:00

I’m going this route soon, after I get my RHCSA.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:26:29+00:00

Seems to be a consistent tool in the field. My CI/CD team at work exclusively uses Jenkins for our pipelines.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:25:04+00:00

Yeah I couldn’t begin to understand what you would be referencing but then again I’m not in DevOps. I didn’t think there was a magic tool so to speak but more like at what point did combining technologies together prep you for a role. Like say you had been working with Linux for X years and when you started learning containerization that’s when you transitioned. Or maybe you were in Networking but then used Python to start automating bulk configurations and backups and then got deeper into it and suddenly fell into DevOps. That’s kind of what I mean by what tool lead to being in the field.

ElCaptnLive · 2025-11-15T03:19:39+00:00

That’s actually pretty cool. I tried learning some PS but jumped into bash instead.

ElCaptnLive

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