Another rant

[Liam Proven]

On 17 November 2017 at 08:30, Xen <list at xenhideout.nl> wrote:
>
> Yet all of the Ubuntu wiki documention on the technical user wiki derives
> from Ubuntu 9, 10, and sometimes 12.
>
> That's 2009.

Ubuntu is small and not yet in profit. It doesn't have many tech writers.

> The OpenSUSE wiki was something you could have a user page in and easily add
> to. That's no longer the case for a long time.

Yes. AIUI -- *not* an official statement -- there were, relatively
speaking, few contributions, and the time required by staff to check
and edit them, so it wasn't worth it, and they closed that channel
off.  Great shame, but if it was costing more than it saved -- I have
no idea, this was long before my time -- then it was a pragmatic
response.

> For instance, if it wasn't for older wikis, I would never have gotten my
> scanner running,
>
> because today this information is not being added.

I've noted the same problem. Me, I blame fora, Stack Overflow, stuff like that.

> Never had to.
>
> One time for my little brother.
>
> I have never had a virus in 20 years of use.
>
> The last virus I had was in MS-DOS, or Windows 95.

Good for you. They're still out there and still a problem. Last major
nasty infection I had to clear out for someone was 4-5y ago, and I've
had some of my own since then.

> I haven't run a virus scanner (persistently) since Windows 98.

Brave. Possibly mad.

> And the online runs I have sometimes done always came up false.

Last scan detection: last week. Still very much an issue.

> My amount of hours in Linux spent in frustration is about 3000x that of
> Windows.

Mine's the reverse. It's why I use it. But then I did tech support for
Windows for ~25 years.

> Today I tried to discover how to use dar -- yeah it is crappy software.

Tried it. Yep. It's an old model, not a good fit today.

> Maybe you will say I have not spent frustrated time in Windows because I
> have not tried to develop for the platform or do advanced things.

With Windows, if it works, it works. If it doesn't, there's a small
chance you can fix it, by changing a driver or something. Otherwise,
you have no chance.

With the Mac, it works first time or not at all.

With Linux, if you are determined enough, it _will_ work but it might
take months of effort.

> And it requires a doctorate in Linux to be able to start using them.

The thing I took away from Ken's mail was this:

Way back when, he dived in, got wet, immersed himself, and _learned_.

I didn't. I dabbled. I still do. I use a Mac, and Windows when paid
to, and I have running installs of multiple other non-Linux OSes.

Broad not deep.

But Ken got seriously into it, learned how to do hard stuff, and he
matter-of-factly offers a complex command to find suspicious apps, as
if it were not hard. Because he acquired the knowledge.

I didn't, not in that depth.

So there are 2 attitudes here, as I alluded to earlier with my comment
about not fighting how Windows wants to be installed.

[1] Take it on their terms. Learn their ways. Learn the tools and
accept that every few years the tools change.
[2] Go with the flow. Don't try to change deep things if you don't
have the knowledge.

I can't count how many times I've seen exchanges like, say...

"I want to change my file manager!"
"OK, add this repo, install this, edit this config file..."
"No no no! Stop all that techie stuff! I don't want to know. Just tell
me what to click."
"You can't do it with a few clicks, but it's easy to do from the shell..."
"No. I don't do that stuff. This sucks. Linux sucks. I hate it. I'm
going back to Windows!"

Either you learn to do it right, or don't do it.

Either learn the right tools to customise or deploy tools onto your
system, or don't customise your system.

Either learn what is the right way to add dozens of apps and settings
to multiple machines, or don't add them.

Want a different browser? Learn how to remove a core component, add a
repo, add a replacement, change some config. Not willing to? Then
learn to live with the built-in browser.

You sound like you want customisability without putting the effort it.
You can't have it both ways.

> It's great that the potential exists.
>
> But it is not being implemented for ordinary people.

Because "ordinary people" don't use it. They use what the computer
came with, and when it breaks, they throw the computer away and get a
new one.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
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