Completely 100% disagree that the getting started guide is easy. Let's go through this by the numbers. First off specifically comparing the guides, the Docker 1.12 stuff works ANYWHERE you have root access. When I go here I'm totally confused:

http://kubernetes.io/docs/getting-started-guides/

Ok, let's see, not only do I immediately get diverted to another page, but I feel like every OS+Cloud combination isn't represented. I guess the CLOSEST thing to working is Ubuntu+AWS. Click.

http://kubernetes.io/docs/getting-started-guides/juju/

YAY! JUJU a new technology I need to learn. Hey guess what, this only works with Ubuntu. Closes browser. I spent weeks trying to map this out in my head. I can't understand why Kub doesn't just "install" like Docker does.

Ok, back to the deployment guide. Let's see there's a GIANT TABLE OF LINKS based on cloud+OS+whatever. So I think it's a massive understatement to say that Kub is more unwieldy than Swarm 1.12.

The thing is, the docker stuff might be simple, but it doesn't actually work. Or at least the networking portion doesn't work as advertised.

http://kubernetes.io/docs/hellonode/ Is the guide that I was taking about. From your post it was not clear that you weren't using gce.

The docs are more of an encyclopedia: a lot of facts, not a lot of editorializing. Unless you enjoy learning from encyclopedias, I would highly recommend talking to other members of the community on the kubernetes slack (kubernetes-novice, kubernetes-user or for AWS sig-aws). That way you can quickly find what has worked well for people and what hasn't, and hopefully save yourself a ton of time.

I would love for our docs to be better - good people are working on it though documentation is always hard. In the meantime, the community is a wonderful resource!