You can learn the first month of cloud computing for free, on the laptop you already have. Start with the Linux terminal, not with AWS, because every cloud server you launch is a Linux machine that you control by typing.

It is tempting to do it the other way round. You open an AWS account first, click around the console, and get lost. The console makes sense only after the terminal does.

What can you learn free before a cloud computing course in Nepal?

Three things, in this order: the Linux terminal, the basic ideas of cloud, and a safe AWS account. Each one costs nothing. Together they show you whether you enjoy this work before you pay anyone.

Step 1: the Linux terminal

On Windows, you do not need a second laptop or a new operating system. Open PowerShell as administrator and type wsl --install, then restart. This installs Ubuntu inside Windows, and it needs Windows 10 version 2004 or later, or Windows 11. Microsoft's WSL install guide has the full steps.

If your internet is slow and the install stops at 0.0%, the same guide gives a fix. Run wsl --install --web-download -d Ubuntu, which downloads Ubuntu first and then installs it.

Next, work through Ubuntu's free Linux command line for beginners. It teaches pwd, cd, ls, mkdir, moving and deleting files, and sudo apt install. It also teaches pipes, where one command feeds the next, like ls | wc -l to count files.

Do it twice. The second time, try it without reading ahead.

Step 2: the basic ideas of cloud

AWS has a free course called AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials on AWS Skill Builder. It covers the main AWS services, how AWS charges you, and the basics of security. AWS points people who are new to cloud to this course first.

The course prepares you for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. That exam costs USD 100. You do not need it to start learning, so skip it for now.

Step 3: a safe AWS account

New AWS accounts can choose a Free account plan. It gives you USD 100 in credits, and you can earn up to USD 100 more by finishing five starter tasks. AWS says on its Free Tier page that you are not charged on this plan unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

AWS also says most new customers do not need a card to sign up. If it asks for one, a Nepali bank's dollar card with online use turned on usually works.

Two things catch beginners here:

  • The clock starts on day one. The Free plan ends after six months, or sooner if your credits run out. After that, AWS suspends the account, and erases it and your data after 90 days unless you upgrade. So open the account when you have time to use it, not months before.
  • Do the budget task first. One of the five starter tasks is to set a cost budget in AWS Budgets. It earns credits, and it teaches you to watch spending before you launch anything.

Where does free learning stop working?

Free tutorials show you commands that work. The real job is the day they do not work.

A junior in cloud spends a lot of time on broken things. A disk fills up. A website stops loading. A server rejects your login. You find the cause by reading logs, which are the system's record of what happened. Tutorials rarely break things on purpose, so this skill grows slowly when you learn alone.

The other gap is review. Nobody tells you that your server allows login with a password when it should only allow keys. You find out later, or never.

This is the honest reason to pay for a course. It is not the content, since much of it is free. It is someone breaking things for you to fix, and someone checking your work.

How do you know you are ready to pay for a cloud course?

Be ready when you can do these without notes. You can open a terminal and move between folders with cd and ls. You can make a folder, write a file with echo, and read it back with cat. You can explain why a cloud server you forget about keeps costing money.

If you hated the terminal in Step 1, take that seriously. Cloud work is mostly typing commands and reading text output. A course will not change that.

Also know the real goal. Most DevOps job posts ask for two or more years of experience. The first job after a course is usually an internship or a junior cloud support role.

What a cloud computing course in Nepal should add

At Saarathi Academy in Old Baneshwor, Kathmandu, the Cloud Computing and DevOps course runs for 10 weeks, two hours a day, Monday to Friday. The first four weeks are Linux, Bash, Git, networking and a safe AWS account. Docker, CI/CD, Terraform and Kubernetes come after that, so the free steps above are the right warm up.

From Week 1 to Week 9, the mentor breaks something on purpose every week, and you find the cause from the logs. There are up to 10 students in the classroom per batch, and a few online. Mentors still do the job they teach. The full syllabus is public on the website before anyone pays, and the course ends with a certification exam taken online at home.

Try this tonight

Run wsl --install on your Windows laptop, or open the terminal on Linux or a Mac. Then finish the first two sections of the Ubuntu tutorial. If you enjoy it, you have your answer about cloud.

The course page is at saarathiacademy.com.np, and the week by week syllabus is here.