Beginner AWS guide for React app: trade coding dreams for NGINX permission fights and endless SSH therapy sessions

A beginner-friendly walkthrough has been documented for deploying a React application using NGINX on an Amazon Linux 2023 EC2 instance. The goal was to keep costs low and learn how Linux and NGINX serve frontend apps. The project used a t2.micro or t3.micro instance type and estimated costs are in the free tier or a few dollars per month. NGINX serves static files, and React is built and copied into the web root. The walkthrough covers troubleshooting common NGINX errors, such as 500 errors and redirect loops, and the importance of using a compatible Node.js version. The project intentionally avoided load balancers, containers, and CI/CD pipelines, focusing on Linux fundamentals and NGINX configuration. This hands-on implementation builds on foundational DevOps concepts and provides a framework for understanding application deployment, with potential future enhancements including adding HTTPS with Let's Encrypt and moving the frontend to S3 and CloudFront.