What's happening on ubuntu-users , and why it's normal

[Markus Schönhaber]

Peter Garrett wrote:

> This post will probably be seen as off-topic by some... So be it.

Since I don't see anything in your post that I'd qualify as "Ubuntu user
technical support", it probably is indeed off topic.
But I don't consider it more OT than most of those "rsync is bad" or
"forget Hardy" zombie threads. So, personally, I don't mind (which could
easily be deduced by the fact that I answered ;-) ).

> That's a nice way of saying that the signal-to-noise ratio has
> deteriorated ;-)

Well, on the one hand, this is caused by more and more inexperienced
users switching to Ubuntu. I consider this normal and even desired since
Ubuntu is in my understanding a distribution which strives to be usable
even for people who don't have thorough knowledge of computers in
general or Linux in particular.
OTOH, and that's what really annoys me, is that lately most of the noise
in this group is caused by a single person. Someone who not only
provides almost no signal himself but even causes tremendous amounts of
noise with his provoking wrong-claiming posts.
But, alas, in my experience this is quite normal too.

> * the hard-line "teach a man to fish" crowd - sit back and laugh at
> yourselves a bit.

This reminds me of the most brilliant thing I ever read on a Dilbert strip:
"
If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day.
If you teach a man how to fish, he will buy an ugly hat.
If you talk about fish to a starving man, you're a consultant.
"

Regards
  mks