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"Just use Linux"...
Jun. 27th, 2023 04:47 amI've gotten so bloody tired of seeing those words as a solution to damn near every single problem someone has with tech. Treating it like it's some magic panacea that'll immediately make everything better, because Linux.
It's a disingenuous ideology that often causes far more harm than good, especially for those who aren't as tech-literate as others in the FOSS space. Telling someone who has virtually no idea what they're really doing to "just install Linux" is akin to telling a random student pilot to "just get behind the stick" of an commercial jet and expecting them to know how to fly it. They might know the basics, but there's far more to the task that they just haven't learned yet.
And when people go looking for help, they're either asked to trust in copy-pasting random scripts or terminal commands (which is exceptionally dangerous), or they're just told to RTFM ("Read the F*****g Manual") and sent on their way. It's not how anyone should be treated, but in the Linux world, it's just normal for this to happen. And it's frustrating to see that, even after my decade of using Linux as a daily driver, and in the subsequent near-decade of having moved off of it, nothing has changed from the toxic gatekeeping attitudes among the most vocal of zealots who drown out everyone else. Like... I'm impressed that many people still give a damn about the OS when they have to deal with people who really have turned their hobby into a religion.
I left because I was tired of having to try and talk over shitheads in the Linux community just to help people. I was tired of dealing with the attitudes any time I ran into something that I needed help on. And above all, I was tired of the idea these people have of fend for yourself or leave.
There are good people in the Linux community, and I want to see their voices elevated over the assholes. Elevated enough that the assholes feel uncomfortable with their own toxic nature, and finally start changing for the better. Elevated enough that people actually want to use Linux because the community helps them, instead of charging out the ass for impersonal "support", or the current alternatives from hell.
I still have a soft spot for Linux. I wouldn't have stuck with it for so long otherwise. But until they can get their shit together in so many ways, including their community, I don't see much of a bright future for it. There is a future, it's just one that's remains abusive, rather than happy.
But the first step should definitely be this: Stop treating Linux like a cure-all, and start actually paying attention to what people need.
It's a disingenuous ideology that often causes far more harm than good, especially for those who aren't as tech-literate as others in the FOSS space. Telling someone who has virtually no idea what they're really doing to "just install Linux" is akin to telling a random student pilot to "just get behind the stick" of an commercial jet and expecting them to know how to fly it. They might know the basics, but there's far more to the task that they just haven't learned yet.
And when people go looking for help, they're either asked to trust in copy-pasting random scripts or terminal commands (which is exceptionally dangerous), or they're just told to RTFM ("Read the F*****g Manual") and sent on their way. It's not how anyone should be treated, but in the Linux world, it's just normal for this to happen. And it's frustrating to see that, even after my decade of using Linux as a daily driver, and in the subsequent near-decade of having moved off of it, nothing has changed from the toxic gatekeeping attitudes among the most vocal of zealots who drown out everyone else. Like... I'm impressed that many people still give a damn about the OS when they have to deal with people who really have turned their hobby into a religion.
I left because I was tired of having to try and talk over shitheads in the Linux community just to help people. I was tired of dealing with the attitudes any time I ran into something that I needed help on. And above all, I was tired of the idea these people have of fend for yourself or leave.
There are good people in the Linux community, and I want to see their voices elevated over the assholes. Elevated enough that the assholes feel uncomfortable with their own toxic nature, and finally start changing for the better. Elevated enough that people actually want to use Linux because the community helps them, instead of charging out the ass for impersonal "support", or the current alternatives from hell.
I still have a soft spot for Linux. I wouldn't have stuck with it for so long otherwise. But until they can get their shit together in so many ways, including their community, I don't see much of a bright future for it. There is a future, it's just one that's remains abusive, rather than happy.
But the first step should definitely be this: Stop treating Linux like a cure-all, and start actually paying attention to what people need.
