New Linux users
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tracyanne Jan 19, 2008 9:17 PM EDT |
None of my new Linux users are frustrated. |
| gus3 Jan 19, 2008 9:38 PM EDT |
I don't have any new Linux users, just one not-so-new: my mother, now 7 years on Linux. She started on Mandrake and KDE; now she uses Fedora and GNOME. She's frustrated from time to time, but a lot less than when she was running Windows. The biggest source of frustration (for both of us) was un-learning her habit of "reboot after lock-up or crash". She regularly has uptimes of two or three months, which she could never hope for on Windows. |
| NoDough Jan 20, 2008 4:36 AM EDT |
Matt Hartley article. |
| r_a_trip Jan 20, 2008 4:54 AM EDT |
I can understand the sentiment of the article, but whatever way you look at it, it's the new comers that barge in screaming with a sense of entitlement which dwarf the entitlements of the Chinese Emperor. Of course RTFM is an affront to courtesy. On the other hand, why do manuals exist? Could it be that there are not enough persons in the world to hold the hands of those who refuse to learn how to operate the tools they need? Of course you can spell it out every time one them asks, but it gets old very soon. I don't think this problem will ever go away. There are those who learn the basic concepts behind the applications (categories) and there are those who learn a sequence of tasks they perform over and over again, without understanding what those task do with the software. The last group will never be at home behind a keyboard. Saying RTFM or trying to learn them the basics behind the software implementation will not make any difference. |
| jdixon Jan 20, 2008 6:15 AM EDT |
> Matt Hartley article. Matt's been busy. Three consecutive articles linked. Not that I read any of them. |
| ColonelPanik Jan 20, 2008 6:59 AM EDT |
Is Matt Hartley the son of Nina Hartley? |
| jdixon Jan 20, 2008 7:22 AM EDT |
> Is Matt Hartley the son of Nina Hartley? Well, reading his articles qualifies as masochism, so I guess it's possible. |
| Bob_Robertson Jan 20, 2008 8:53 AM EDT |
I can understand the symptoms, but not the disease. When I first ran Linux, I loaded up a web server (Boa), but didn't know where to find the directory that would be served. I tried "man boa", which gave me no useful information but did point to the configuration file. I looked at /etc/boa.conf or whatever the f*** it's called, but it didn't say either. But the man page had the email address of the Debian _maintainer_. Because I didn't know about debian-user@lists.debian.org yet, I wrote a quick and polite note to the Boa maintainer, asking where the root web directory was. He replied with a FUROR of, basically, "why are you asking me such a stupid question?" I wrote back stating where I had looked already, and I was very sorry but I couldn't think of anywhere else to look. He replied, calm now that he knew that I had at least tried, that I really should have looked in /usr/share/doc/boa but that it was /var/www. But what does this story tell? That even a technically competent person who'd been using Unix style systems in the past can ask what seems like a stupid question. That's why I don't get mad even with the most simple of questions, because I've been there. How about this one: "I used alt-f(1-6) to change screens, but since I got X working I cannot change back to a console. What am I doing wrong?" Ah, "ctrl-alt-f(1-6) to get out of X." Seems like something everyone already knows, but I didn't. Not at first. It takes asking "stupid" questions to know there are no stupid questions. Only stupid users. |
| techiem2 Jan 20, 2008 8:56 AM EDT |
http://www.despair.com/cluelessness.html :) |
| herzeleid Jan 20, 2008 11:12 AM EDT |
Of course, we know that new windoze users are never frustrated, and no windoze users have ever posted questions or vented their frustrations with 'bloze online - oh, wait... damn. |
| Bob_Robertson Jan 20, 2008 11:19 AM EDT |
My favorite has always been Agony http://www.despair.com/ag24x30prin.html But I think I'm going to put this on one my wall http://www.despair.com/dysfunction.html |
| azerthoth Jan 20, 2008 11:51 AM EDT |
Thats a great one, instant classic. |
| hkwint Jan 20, 2008 1:38 PM EDT |
Darn, this brings up a good idea for an amateur writer like yours faithfully. The title of the article is wrong. It should have been called: "Why old Windows users are frustrated(R)" instead. Since that title is not taken, I hereby copyright/trademark it, and I might even write some content along with that title in the indeterminate time in the future. |
| jezuch Jan 20, 2008 2:47 PM EDT |
Quoting:really should have looked in /usr/share/doc/boa There is a convention in Debian (don't know about other distros) that documentation goes to /usr/share/doc/ and usually includes README.Debian. It's obvious, right? But I don't think it's being communicated clearly enough to new users. I had to make this discovery and was very proud of it :> |
| jdixon Jan 20, 2008 4:17 PM EDT |
...don't know about other distros In Slackware the equivalent files are in /usr/doc/. |
| tuxchick Jan 20, 2008 4:33 PM EDT |
I rather like the applications that have a 'Help' button. Yeah, I know only whiny lazy end-lusers complain about having to navigate filesystems just to hunt down TFMs.. but it is so lovely when the computer does the work. |
| Bob_Robertson Jan 20, 2008 4:50 PM EDT |
> I rather like the applications that have a 'Help' button. Hard to do on a background process with no GUI. :^) |
| tuxchick Jan 20, 2008 4:59 PM EDT |
Quoting: Hard to do on a background process with no GUI. :^) Only to those of limited imagination!! Seriously, I like the foo -help convention, or foo --help, or foo --Help, or whatever random convention is used for that command. And error messages that say "you just tried to make me do something impossible! Please refer to /foo/fie/fo/doc to learn the right way!" RTFM is a valid answer, if you point the way to TFM. These days it could be in any number of places, plus a lot of projects rely on Wikis, and most times you can find third-party sites that are better than the project's official site. |
| Sander_Marechal Jan 20, 2008 8:53 PM EDT |
Quoting:I rather like the applications that have a 'Help' button. I don't know about you KDE folk, but my Gnome has a help button under "Desktop >> Help" that lets me access every piece of documentation on my system, whether it's DocBook, Man page, Info manual, whatever. And it even lets be search them all to boot! |
| jezuch Jan 21, 2008 5:09 AM EDT |
Quoting:I don't know about you KDE folk There's KDE Help Center. Never installed it so I don't even know what it looks like ;) |
| Steven_Rosenber Jan 21, 2008 4:30 PM EDT |
A colleague of mine just had Norton roll over on her. And after she had the box cleaned up by Best Buy's Geek Squad (ding), she went and ... got an updated version of Norton (ding). I don't think I can bring her back from the dark side (even to use Avast or AVG instead of Norton ...), but any frustration that Linux throws at you has to pale in comparison to the virus problem in Windows. For people who like spending lots of money, there's always the Mac. I acknowledge the problems with wireless -- though I had plenty of problems with wireless in Windows 98 and 2000. Hell, I could barely get USB to work in Windows 98, and I upgraded to 2000 just to get my wireless working. It didn't last. But once I found a credible alternative to paying hundreds or thousands for software, or using stolen software -- the first of which I can't do, the second I won't -- Linux and the distributions wrapped around it became too compelling not to use. And the protection from viruses -- whether due to the design of the OS or its relative lack of popularity among virus-creators -- is just cake. So it's a case of "come for the freeness, stay for the security." |
| Scott_Ruecker Jan 21, 2008 5:06 PM EDT |
Quoting:Matt's been busy. Three consecutive articles linked. Not that I read any of them. I did that on purpose, to ease the pain.. |
| jdixon Jan 21, 2008 6:07 PM EDT |
> ..even to use Avast or AVG instead of Norton... Or BitDefender, or Avira. And that's the ones I know of. I'm sure there are more. There's no reason for an individual user to pay for Norton or McAfee unless they just like spending money. |
| jdixon Jan 21, 2008 6:08 PM EDT |
> I did that on purpose, to ease the pain.. And we appreciate it Scott. It makes it far easier to skip them. |
| tuxchick Jan 21, 2008 7:14 PM EDT |
It's like ripping off a bandage that crosses a lot of hairs, instead of carefully peeling it off slowly. |
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