Ask HN: Easiest way to install a GitHub app?

Hey, I am a middle aged product manager, I want to sharpen my technical chops and play around with a few ideas as a side project.

I am finding it time consuming to get a VPS set up, to where I can clone a simple github app and get it working.

I chose a cheap VPSDime server, which has nothing pre-installed. Maybe that was my mistake.

I configured as best I could ssh, postgres, nginx, github, ruby...

Right now it is complaining that I don't have active_record installed.

I don't have a lot of spare time, and most of the dev guys I know seem to rely on someone else to setup their boxes.

Is there an easier way? Should I throw money at the problem? Are there any scripts books or videos that get you to the point of having something meaningful running?