From IRC and a NEW USER: "Ubuntu is so horrible to try and use..."

[compdoc]

>Does anyone listen in either IRC or on the lists?
>This is from a brand new user that can't get anything to work under
>the new "Unity" or anything else...what's the go? IS no one actually
>listening at all?

Yes, people are listening.

I've been an IRC addict for many years now. I am there to learn as well as
to help whenever I can with computer hardware and OS issues. In fact, you'll
usually find me on the Ubuntu IRC help channel.

What I see in the Ubuntu IRC channel, and on this list, is a lot of people
getting some of the best support a person can find.

The people helping are usually tolerant, patient, and give excellent
technical advice - much of which is not strictly related to Ubuntu.

Not all support channels are like that. If you have a problem with samba for
example, the #centos support channel will tell you it's not a 'centos'
problem and tell you to try elsewhere. You are not allowed to ask questions
about or to discuss anything non-centos while in there. As a result, it's a
pretty dead channel most of the time.

Ubuntu's support channel is very much alive and active in contrast. It's
hard to keep up with all the conversations going on in there. Users of all
computer skill levels are helped when they can be. None are turned away
except maybe the aggressive or unruly types - but there's a lot of tolerance
even for them.

Unfortunately, not everyone can be helped. Computers are complex machines
and are prone to component failure. I repair computers for a living and I
replace many power supplies and hard drives every month. I refer to them as
'consumable' parts, much like a toner cartridge in a printer. Anyway, I
mention this because there are times when the fault for crashing and other
problems that people have are actually the hardware, and not the operating
system.

Other times, people can be hard to help because they just do not spend
enough time learning how to use their computers. They often do the wrong
thing or just get frustrated too easily.

And there's also one common reason that users don't get helped: there are
times when no one currently in the channel (or on the mailing list) knows
the answer.

Free support can be hit or miss that way. It's just one tool that a person
should be using while helping himself to figure out the problem. Users of
free operating system sometimes need to be prepared to fix it themselves.
Self-help is what IRC, the mailing lists, and google are for.

By the way, I not a Unity fan myself, but I know how to use it because
Windows now works in the same way when it comes opening programs: you click
the Start(Unity) button and start typing the name of your program. As you
type a list of program names starts to form. When it appears, you click on
it. Pretty simple.

They seem to have done away with menus for the 'desktop' and gone to buttons
as the interface. Programs are still able use their normal menus after
launching. But heck, maybe linux programs will become more button-centric in
the future. Maybe a paradigm shift is in progress.

God, I hope not.