Tech writers think Ubuntu is for morons - The Jem Report

Comments?

I think these how-tos for "morons" are actually something good especially for users not very familliar with Linux or PCs in general.

Ubuntu has a great community and you can find guides for literally everything from cooking you own kernel to how to shut down your PC.

And there are people which need these guides. Just telling them they would be stupid wouldn't be very polite and these guides help most of the noobs not to start the same old discussions over and over again.

Personally I've been using Linux for 10 years and just recently moved some of my boxes to Ubuntu, not particullarly because of the great amount of guides but because I like the community.

I'm still using Debian on my Servers and Gentoo on one of my laptops. They usually take a bit longer to set up but are way more stable, but for new users are kind of hard to grasp. Especially distros like Gentoo or Slack*

I'll have to second MRiGnS's post. I hope that doesn't make me less of a Slacker

I have mixed feelings about this. I do find it annoying that Ubuntu HOWTOs frequently take you from Ubuntu CD in hand through inserting it, installing the OS (with LOTS of screenshots), before finally mentioning the two steps I need to get something to work. It also assumes a particular desktop environment, usually Gnome, when the DE affects the concept of the solution very little.

That said, I'd much rather wade through too much information and pictures than to have nothing. I can see that they're trying hard to debunk the notion that once you abandon Windows there's no hand-holding. So they adopt the form and style of Windows help (when you can find it).

On the other hand, because of the style adopted by many Ubuntu HOWTOs, I get the bulk of my information from the Forums. The same quality of information is usually available there in a more digested form. I've rarely felt totally abandoned.

At the risk of rambling... Throughout my career as a developer I've seen tech writers adopt more and more of a condescending style that assumes users are idiots. Rather than describe the concept of a tool or application component, they guide your mouse through menus and buttons, show you lots of pictures, and then tell you where to "click". But unfortunately they're probably meeting the expectations of the market. I just wish the market knew better.

Sorry, I couldn't read past the first few sentences of the article. It disgusted me.

The Linux community as a whole seems to always have been grumbling about how linux hasn't spread. The reason in the past is most people using a computer at home aren't really tech savvy. Ubuntu is a step towards bridging that gap.

That article is a example of the "elite" looking down their nose at the "little people." The thing is, if anyone wants linux to spread, the linux community has to at least meet them halfway. Calling them morons or making fun of them isn't a step in the right direction.

I wouldn't even call them elite in double quotes. These are the same people spreading the linux users are MS-haters fuss.
They seem like religious fanatics to me from time to time.
Many of them are even such hypocrites, just talking some stuff they read somewhere. Typically they even adore apple, just because it's also an underdog but forgetting that apple's software is even more closed than Microsofts.

And the grumbling about Linux not being spread so much, well they don't get that Linux' purpose isn't to be the market leader or something in the first place but to be a cheap alternative to expensive software.



It's funny that GNU/Linux users seem to call Microsoft the evil communist while Microsoft fans call Linux the evil communist

I always sensed that there was an eagerness in the "community" to sort of spread the word, or see more people being able to take advantage of linux and open source software. Isn't that the concept that launched Ubuntu in the first place? I could be wrong. Until ubuntu, it seemed like a lot of the linux community sort of gave new users the RTFM attitude.

BTW, your last point gave me an idea for another thread.

Well, I think both attitudes are present. There are millions of linux users, so we obviously can't put them all in the same box. If the real reason for GNU/Linux is "freedom" as the we claim, then spreading that freedom to even the non-tech-savvy is the right thing to do. I think Ubuntu is one of the biggest champions of that philosophy. But yeah, there's still plenty of people out there who seem to be offended that linux is becoming more accessible to the masses. I guess that will always be the case.

There just seems something wrong with that. But every community has them. I'm a pipe smoker. Among pipe smokers there is a contingent that looks down their noses at certain types of tobacco blends, lower end pipes, they pass themselves off as purists and try to fidget their way up some sort of imaginary pecking order. Of course, none of them would openly admit it, and they do it a sort of non-overt way. It's a weird aspect of human psychology that intriques me because you see it everywhere.

Many of may I call them geeks are not longer reffering to the famous term of RTFM but will tell UTFUS:

Use The Fucking Ubuntu or Suse

Yeah. Here's an off-the-cuff theory. We all want to be "special." So we do something that's unusual. Pipe-smoking or linux or whatever. But then if we feel like too many other people are enjoying our hobby, then we get kinda territorial. We start saying that they aren't doing it right. They're not the "real" hobbyists. It's some kind of misguided attempt to show that we are not just run-of-the-mill, that we are somehow unique and special. It comes of defining ourselves by means of an activity, rather than internally.

When I first saw, and scanned this article on Linux Today, I immediately dismissed it as just another rant by an elitist propeller head, but thought twice about it, and posted it here for all to enjoy.

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We had house guests last weekend, and one of them asked to use my computer to check his email. I flipped the computer on for him, and a couple minutes later, he came back into the family room, with a blank stare on his face. He had no idea what to do with Feisty.

So, I spent some time showing him what to do, and he checked his email, and he asked me to send him some info on Ubuntu.

Monday, I emailed him some links to the Ubuntu home page, a couple of other sites, and a list of Linux alternatives to the Windows programs he was using.

A couple of days later, I got a return email from him, telling me that he had read it all, plus apparently, a lot more, and had decided to stay with Windows.

His primary reason?

"Too many choices with Linux."

I didn't tell him, how funny I thought that statement was...

lol, too much choices...

I don't think the common users has more choices with Ubuntu than with Windows XP for example.

They usually just don't care or don't know that there are plenty of different programs to chose, even in windows.

When first entering the GNU world they suddenly feel overwhelmed by the amount of applications but I think this is just because of the old elite hood still having a major place in the community and they are promoting different kinds of software for the same task.

Geeky Windows users do they same though, but you are less likly to meet them.

By any stretch of the imagination, I was a hardcore Window's power user before converting completely to Linux several years ago.

Once I got past the initial learning curve, I can't begin to tell you how simple my life became using Linux instead of Windows.

Edit:

But, trying to convince people, such as my friend, to make the switch, will be next to impossible I'm afraid.

many are scared off by things they don't know or maybe don't trust like the boss in one thread some time ago.

At the risk of running this thread off course even more, I'll say you know exactly what I'm talking about. Its the same type thing that draws people into and keeps them in cults and a lot of religious groups.

Likewise. Since when does ignorance equal stupidity? After seeing just the first paragraph or two of that rubbish, I would not ever take anythign the writer said seriously again. The masthead on the site says "Your Source for technology news"?

Gimme a break.

Tis true, tis true.

what's tis?

It's true, it's true, spoken with an Irish brogue...