Server setup

It's essential to have access to a linux server to learn Ruby and Rails. So get one at Digital Ocean or Linode. It's perfectly OK to start with the $10 per month option or $5 with Digital Ocean. Or you can use it by the hour and pay pennies instead! 3 hours on Digital Ocean costs me $0.03.

Building an online store means I'm going to need to know how to work with Linux, Mysql database, and Apache web server at minimum.

My project is built on CentOS 7. I'm using Mariadb for database (apparently CentOS 7 doesn't allow you to install mysql any longer).

Locally I have a Macbook (2012 Macbook Pro) which I use to connect to the server and write Ruby/Rails code. I have Sublime Text (it's set up to upload code to server every time I hit "save") and use Github's Atom text editor to code, Adobe's bracket to push to repo, and iTerm (a terminal-like app).

When is it a good time to buy a mac? Use this guide.