Good day fellow Linux lovers.
I have noticed a trend on forums lately that I do not like.
Okay just to be clear, I appreciate everyone who makes a difference.
Not only in the Linux community, but in any and every community.
I’m not here to make anyone look or feel bad in any way shape or form.
In admittance, I too am guilty of what I am about to address. I saw the flaw of my ways and would like to rectify this.
I just want to contribute and do something meaningful as well and I believe this will help many newcomers.
I appreciate those who volunteer to help those in the Linux community in need.
Really. Thank you guys. Without you, I would probably not be doing this in Manjaro.
I’ll just get right into it then.
I remember when I first started to dabble my feet into Linux. I was lost and I needed help. Now as any rational person would do, I would first try to find a YouTube walk-through then (If that didn’t help) I’d try to find a solution on Google. The last thing I did was ask a forum.
I can not begin to describe my frustration each time an answer came in the form of a link to an article with the words “Try this”.
I could have googled that article. In fact, I have Googled that article. I did not understand that article. This is why I asked for help.
Ok. That did sound like I’m really giving flak to someone but hold on.
Let’s try another perspective. My own struggle wasn’t all that horrible because I was already a practicing technician and I managed to work through all my problems.
Also this is not isolated to Linux forums. This is something that is happening on all forums and it is a really big problem
But if I were to put myself in the shoes of someone who was perhaps less knowledgeable than I was, I can see a real problem. I will give analogies. Imagine you needed medical help and the doctor simply plops down a medical book and says “This will help.” or if you needed legal help and the lawyer did the same. Imagine your child asks you a question and that is your response.
I’m not trying to become a doctor or a lawyer. I simply need to find out what is wrong with me or whether something is legal or not.
Likewise, some noobs are not trying to become programmers, They just want to follow steps and fix a problem.
Linux is not too popular. And that sucks. Mostly for gamers like me or photo editors or architects. Because their software will most likely not work on Linux. Why? Because as a huge firm pumping out software for millions of people and earning billions of bucks, it just doesn’t make sense to spend time and money making software work on a platform that is not being used.
We want to see an increase in the usage. A larger community. Yes, not everyone will contribute and not everyone should, but there are strength in numbers and simply being a Linux user contributes to the recognition of Linux.
I ask for all to be as respectful to me as I was in this thread. I would like for all Linux users new and old to be treated with compassion and understanding.
Let’s make Linux great.
I would now like to thank all those who powered through this. Thank you for reading this and thank you for all you have done so far.