Are you a developer running OS X or Linux, and would like to give Amazon AWS a shot? And do you prefer the command line over fancy GUIs? Read on and you might have your first AWS-provided, Ubuntu-powered Nginx web server running in 30 to 45 minutes. This article will guide you from just having OS X or Linux installed on your computer to a running virtual server on Amazon Web Services (AWS), completely controlled via its Command Line Interface (CLI). If you just start out using Amazon AWS, you'll be able to benefit from the AWS Free Tier for 12 months. This tutorial only uses resources available via the AWS free tier. (Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Amazon in any other way than as a user.)

Required skills: A basic knowledge of the command line (shell) and web technologies (SSH, HTTP) is all that's needed. Open your operating system's terminal to follow along.