Forget Hardy

[Bart Silverstrim]

Oliver Grawert wrote:
> Am Mittwoch, den 11.06.2008, 09:31 -0400 schrieb Bart Silverstrim:

>> Are you saying that the initial users of Linux...those who are or tend 
>> to be more geek/technology oriented...working in a group of people 
>> primarily attracting like-minded people...should be turned off to using 
>> Ubuntu because they'll be attacked by net-nannies telling them they need 
>> to tone down and "dumb down" for fear of scaring off people who really 
>> don't want anything to do with the computer other than playing a video 
>> game, with no interest in the reason those technology-minded people 
>> first got involved in the first place?
> 
> i wouldnt make a difference here between a kid playing gcompris games
> having a question or a guy using ubuntu to manage his holiday photo
> collection ... we're the distro that many mainstream users use so the
> support must take that into account. 

And I think that on this list, those questions are normally answered 
without the accusation you sounded like you were making of RTFM. There 
is usually a brief answer supplied, or a pointer to relevant material to 
help the person asking. Unless you have a specific example where someone 
didn't get any help...?

> i dont think net nannies are needed at all; expecting a minor comon
> sense of the supporters to imagine how the average ubuntu user looks
> like.

There sure seem to be a lot of nannies despite not needing them.

> if you want elitist attitudes of people calling themselves linux gurus
> this list is probably the wrong place though and ubuntu-devel-discuss
> might be better suited ...

It's not an elitist attitude I'm referring to. Elitists try to keep 
others from understanding what they know. Educating users, "teaching 
them to fish" is trying to bring others up to speed. How many people are 
handing out good advice here but didn't have to RTFM in the first place, 
or at some point along the way? And why continue to shield people from 
the scary world of being somewhat self sufficient so they may in turn 
become contributors?

If anything, you do users a great disservice by keeping them tied to you 
for help. That's the ultimate elitism. Help people learn and understand 
so they may improve.

> (... who works professionally with linux since 1996 and was called linux
> guru several times in his life and is still able to manage to answer
> questions in an understandable way for beginners he hopes :) (without
> telling them to RTFM))

That is another issue...you do it professionaly, meaning you're being 
compensated to cater to the user's questions, meaning you're offering a 
service. These people are volunteers.

Really, though...this thread is going to get totally out of hand. It's a 
difference in philosophy about dealing with users and their questions, 
totally irrelevant to actually getting any support done, so...*shrug* If 
people want help, google it, if they still don't get it, ask on a list.