> There is a world out there about compilers, run-times, drivers, emulators, VMs and OSes that I can't seem to grasp, it is just too complicated for me
Regarding VMs and OSes:
Since it seems that you have been working as a web developer, I think a soft transition for you would be to get into modern devops practices:
- start with vagrant to spin up a linux virtual machine and start playing with it. E.g., how to setup ssh keys, how to install packages in an automated an idempotent way (e.g., using Ansible), etc.
- while you are dealing with virtual machines, you'll learn also a bit about networking (e.g., what's a private network? what's NAT?)
- when you know enough you could start using Terraform to spin up virtual machines in the cloud. There's some magic the moment you run one command and you have a linux machine up and running in some cloud provider! Even better: you run another command and the machine is totally destroyed :)
In such a journey you'll be exposed to different and potential new concepts for you: vpcs, virtualization, a bit of security, firewall rules, ssh, tcp/ip, etc.
Regarding VMs and OSes:
Since it seems that you have been working as a web developer, I think a soft transition for you would be to get into modern devops practices:
- start with vagrant to spin up a linux virtual machine and start playing with it. E.g., how to setup ssh keys, how to install packages in an automated an idempotent way (e.g., using Ansible), etc.
- while you are dealing with virtual machines, you'll learn also a bit about networking (e.g., what's a private network? what's NAT?)
- when you know enough you could start using Terraform to spin up virtual machines in the cloud. There's some magic the moment you run one command and you have a linux machine up and running in some cloud provider! Even better: you run another command and the machine is totally destroyed :)
In such a journey you'll be exposed to different and potential new concepts for you: vpcs, virtualization, a bit of security, firewall rules, ssh, tcp/ip, etc.