Speaker
Description
In Kenya, the "OS divide" is a silent barrier. Many of us start our software engineering journeys on shared family laptops or second-hand corporate machines where we don't have full control over the hardware or BIOS.
A Personal Story
I remember my first serious development machine, an ASUS laptop I received from a relative. It was a former company laptop, and due to administrative locks and my own skill level at the time, I couldn't reset the BIOS or disable Secure Boot to dual-boot Ubuntu. For a long time, I felt like a "second-class" developer because I couldn't run a native Linux environment.
WSL as the Equalizer
This workshop is for everyone in that position. We will explore how Ubuntu on WSL has lowered the barrier to entry, allowing us to teach CLI fundamentals (inspired by community mentorship at KidsCodelab) and professional Linux workflows without the risk of partitioning a hard drive or fighting a locked BIOS.
Core of the workshop
We will move beyond the basics of wsl --install to show how to turn that same "restricted" Windows machine into a hardened, workstation.
Workshop Roadmap:
The Foundation: Enabling systemd and using the free personal tier of Ubuntu Pro to get enterprise-grade security and Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) on a consumer laptop.
Modern DevSecOps: A hands-on look at deploying Kubernetes locally with Kind and using Cilium with eBPF.
Observability: Using Hubble to visualize network traffic and block unauthorized pods at the kernel level.
Ensuring your local Ubuntu environment perfectly mirrors the high-performance cloud servers you'll deploy to.
Justification
Some developers in Kenya utilize Windows hardware but deploy to Linux servers. My story with the locked ASUS laptop is a common one; many students across Kenya face similar hardware or "permission" barriers. This workshop provides immediate value by showing how Ubuntu on WSL can be a world-class, hardened engineering station without needing a new laptop or a BIOS reset. By introducing advanced topics like eBPF and Cilium, we are upskilling local talent to meet international DevSecOps standards while keeping the entry barrier incredibly low.
| Where are you based? | Kisumu, Kenya |
|---|---|
| Submission type | Workshop |
| Technical level | intermediate |