Using Ubuntu absolves the user of personal responsibility?

[Alexander Skwar]

Gilles Gravier <Gilles at Gravier.org>:

> So Michael got the spirit of the response, though not the words. :)

No, Michael did NOT get the spirit of the message. He invented something,
as he's annoyed by me, or something like that.

> I really think that in many cases, giving the immediate answer helps a lot.

Disagreement. It doesn't help, it's actually bad help, as people
might not understand what they're actually doing.

Eg. somebody might suggest to read the mail from root by doing

        sudo rm -rf /

If people get into the habbit to just copy'n'paste a command, they
might get hurt.

> Let's be realistic, many of the Ubuntu users don't really WANT to be 
> techies... Ubuntu is "Linux for human beings"... not for geeks.

Fine.

> So don't try to make a geek out of every user who asks a question.

I don't.

> Those  
> who want to be geeks, once they see the mount -t iso9660... answer will 
> go and man mount to learn more.

Or they might not, as the command works right away. It's much more
straight forward, to point people to the documentation, so that they
can  find out for themselves what to do.

> I think it is important that in the non geek population of people who 
> try out Ubuntu (instead of Windows), we make their life easier... Not 
> their study of Linux, some of them don't care, just as they don't care 
> how the internals of Windows XP tick... so giving the immediate answer 
> let's them continue happily with their test of Ubuntu (instead of giving 
> them the message of "you can't find it by yourself, so go back to 
> Windows" - which they might).

I did NOT give that message.

> We want more people on Linux... and yes, newbies as well. In fact, the 
> more newbies on Linux, the more we get newbie questions that help us 
> make Linux a more newbie and grandmother friendly operating system.

Hm. That might be VERY arguable if "we" really want that.

> No  
> way am I going back to Yggdrasil.
> 
> Oh.... and... as Michael points out... if you do find a newbie question 
> irritating, why not take a deep breath, and let somebody less irritated 
> by it answer it. While I certainly find that when you go into details 
> your posts here are extremely valuable, I would prefer less drama and 

NOW: *I* did not make a drama here...

> more direct help to the newer users. Let them learn at their pace.

I do let them learn at their pace. But I reserve the right to
point people to the documentation, if I know where the documentation
is.

Alexander Skwar
-- 
Forest fires cause Smokey Bears.