ReadTheManual is for builders, tinkerers, career switchers and self-starters. If you have ever felt stuck waiting for a job, a course, or someone to say “now’s your time”: this is your time. Everything here is learning by doing, and everything taught is something actually running in production.
Three steps, repeated forever
- Pick a project you actually want. Not the one a syllabus says is next. The Ideas page sorts projects by the itch, not the technology.
- Build it from a guide that has been run for real. Every guide on this site comes from a service running in production, gotchas included, not from vendor docs.
- Write it down and show the work. A homelab you can talk about beats a certificate you can’t. This is how lab time turns into interview answers.
Six structured paths
Each series is a complete arc from first command to working system. Start with the one that matches where you are.
Linux Fundamentals
The command-line skills interviews actually test: navigation, permissions, networking, processes and scripting.
Open the series → CH.02Homelab Guides
Build the skills that get you hired on hardware that suits your budget. Pi builds, Proxmox clusters, Docker stacks.
Open the series → CH.03Digital Sovereignty
Own your email, files and services. Self-hosting and cloud skills are not opposites; one sharpens the other.
Open the series → CH.04Automation Fundamentals
Bash, PowerShell, Ansible and Terraform: the step up from manual admin to engineering.
Open the series → CH.05Windows Fundamentals
Active Directory, PowerShell and Group Policy: the Microsoft estate skills most UK IT jobs quietly assume.
Open the series → CH.06Vibe to Production
Take an AI-generated app from “works on my machine” to a production-ready, self-hosted deployment.
Open the series →Three first projects that always land
Block ads for the whole house
- Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi: one evening, and everyone in the house notices.
Build a homelab from e-waste
- A capable lab from hardware on its way to the tip. Budget: nearly nothing.
Never type a password again
- SSH keys done properly: the first habit of people who manage more than one machine.