How to get Google Cloud credits?
When creating an account on GCP, you can get $300 of credits (valid for 90 days). However, this method requires you to enter your credit card information.
The recommanded way to get credits is by getting a $50 educational grant if the course you are following is registered in the Google Cloud Education program.
Do I need to enter my credit card information to get the Education credits?
No. If you are prompted for credit card information, you are likely using the Free Trial instead of the credits program.
More information about the Education credits are available here.
Is there a risk of losing money by using Google Cloud resources?
No. If you run out of credits, you can simply not use the GCP resources anymore.
Note however that it is important to pay attention to the way you are using your credits (see the following entry)
What should I pay attention to when allocating resources in the Cloud?
The most important thing to understand is that the resources you allocate in the Cloud are not freed when you disconnect.
Resources have to be freed explicitly to stop consuming credits.
$50 of credits, is it a lot?
Yes, you can do plenty of things with $50. A VM instance typically costs a few cents per hour (small instances even cost less than 1 cent per hour).
See here for more information.
Why GCP and not another provider?
You can use another provider if you want. They all provide services that are similar.
We provide tutorials for GCP because:
- We know this system better.
- Some courses have been accepted in Google Cloud Education program.
What text editors are typically available inside the VMs
When you use the ubuntu-1804-lts image, only nano and vi are available by default. You can install emacs by running sudo apt install emacs-nox.