[OT] Was: totally satisfied :D

[Nick Sabalausky]

On Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:49:58 +0200
"Mehrdad" <wfunction at hotmail.com> wrote:

> On Wednesday, 19 September 2012 at 17:29:17 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 12:02:24PM +0200, Timon Gehr wrote:
> >> The issue is that in one case you know how to fix it and in 
> >> the other one you do not (and you care less about it because 
> >> you prefer to think Windows is superior as it is what you use 
> >> '99% of the time'),  not that the problems are inherently 
> >> (un)fixable.
> >
> > Yeah, that's one of the things that irks me about Windows 
> > culture. It's touted as being "user-friendly" and "easy to 
> > use", etc., but actually it requires just as much effort as 
> > learning to use Linux. People complain about how Linux is hard 
> > to use or things break for no reason, but the same thing 
> > happens with Windows -- you either do things the Windows way 
> > (which requires that you learn what it is), or you quickly run 
> > into a whole bunch of gratuitous incompatibilities and bugs 
> > that nobody cares about because you aren't "supposed" to do 
> > things that way.
> 
> 
> Yeah, they're "fixable" by your definition all right.
> 
> It's just that when you ask people how, either no one you ask 
> knows why, or they try to convince you that you're an idiot for 
> even thinking about asking."
> 
> Relevant examples:
> 
> It's next-to-impossible to go on a forum and ask about fixing a 
> boot-sector GRUB install without some fool coming along and 
> diverting the entire thread into "Why the hell isn't GRUB 
> installed on your MBR?"
> 
> When you have a (God forbid!) space character in your 
> directory/file names and some program chokes on it?
> "Stop putting spaces in your file names."
> 
> When you ask how to make a passwordless account or how to obtain 
> permanent root privileges?
> "Are you insane?!"
> 
> When you ask if there is a defragmenter for Linux?
> Some fool comes along and says "Linux doesn't need 
> defragmentation!!!!!!!!!"
> 
> When you ask why the fonts are blurry?
> "It's just different, you're just picky. Get used to it."
> 
> When you ask why the touchpad is so darn hypersensitive?
> "Modify the source code."
> 

Yea, as much as there is I like about Linux (and I intend to switch to
it for my primary system), I've always considered the "culture"
surrounding it to be one of Linux's biggest liabilities.

You should have seen the shitstorm I had to put up with when inquiring
about a text-mode editor (so I could use it through SSH) that worked
more like Kate/Gedit and less like VI/Emacs/Nano. Of course, I did make
the mistake of *mentioning* the forbidden word: Windows. But still,
I mean, grow up people: it's a fucking OS, not a religion. (I even got
responses that outright ignored the "text-mode" part and suggested
various GUI editors.)

There are certainly *good* helpful mature users too, though. It'd be
unfair, and patently untrue, for me to say that *all* the Linux culture
is screwy like that. But there's too much.