Ask HN: How to begin learning .NET Core?

I am a Ruby dev. I only have one computer I can use for coding, a MacBook. I want to learn .NET Core to the point where I can do everything I currently do in Rails in .NET.

I'm having more trouble with the initial setup of the environment than I expected. I have been flailing about with Visual Studio for Mac and the .NET CLI suite for about a week now to no avail. I understand that VS for Mac is not fully ready for ASP.NET development, but things are improving. There is another editor called VS Code, and some CLI tools available, but at this point, no one tool or combination of tools seems to provide a complete dev environment on a Mac.

I am trying to get started as soon as possible for free on the equipment I have. I don't want to buy a whole 'nother machine for this. Has anyone had luck with coding .NET a VM? How about online classes to help with setup? Or should I just give it a few months and try again? What do you think?