I’ve recently caught up with an episode of Humans + Tech podcast with the great Kelsey Hightower.
Kelsey is a principal engineer at Google, Kubernetes proponent and all round nice guy. One thing that struck me about his chat was his humility, and he ability to explain things from the bottom up.
Basic skills are the core of any knowledge, as are the ability to build on them when needed.
One thing Kelsey communicates very clearly, is that basic Linux skills are the cornerstone of working with Kubernetes.
I like this approach, because those skills are ones worth learning whether you intend to learn Kubernetes or not. Learning how file systems work, about processes, pipes, signals and the basics of how Linux communicates under the hood will enable a fundamental understanding of the engineering platform which underpins public cloud, the internet and of course Kubernetes.
So investing a little time in Linux, whether you intend to deploy Kubernetes or not, is a good use of your time.