Let’s make Windows 10 the last version ever used!
*Sat. 28 Dec. 11h* Stage YELL #KDEEco 's Call To Action against e-waste driven by #Windows10.
*Mon. 30 Dec. 13-15h* B&B habitat join the BoF to organize a global #FreeSoftware campaign to raise awareness of Windows 10’s EoL in 2025, the role of software in #eWaste, and how independent, sustainable #FOSS is a solution to keep devices in use & out of the landfill.
https://fahrplan.alpaka.space/jugend-hackt-38c3-2024/talk/ST8NJA/
As I said, because Linux is not popular, it’s hard to know someone close to you that knows Linux to help you.
Now, with your example that you give here, let’s say you want to learn how to use the Windows PowerShell things. If you don’t have someone close, you would look for a professional to pay, if you don’t want to pay, you would check for a YouTube guide and there are full of guides about it.
If you want to do the same with the Linux terminal, is the same exact phrase: “let’s say you want to learn how to use the Linux terminal things. If you don’t have someone close, you would look for a professional to pay, if you don’t want to pay, you would check for a YouTube guide and there are full of guides about it.”
Most of the people wants to play on their PC and don’t want to mess with Linux, the people I know that doesn’t play on their PC are still using the Linux I installed to them. And your example is something easy, and there are many guides on YouTube and blogs about it.
If someone responds with a “rtfm”, should be because the question is about something complex not a common user do, what common people do on their computer it’s all on YouTube guides.
I think those people that kept with Linux are those that doesn’t play games or doesn’t reject the idea from the beginning (denying learning something new).
You’re still getting a fundamental detail wrong: Most non-tech people don’t want to “learn (tool)”, they want to “do (thing)” and (tool) happens to be part of the solution. But they don’t search for “beginner’s guide to (tool)”, let a lone a professional to teach them, they search for “vague terms describing what I want to do in non-technical terms”. They may get accurate results, useless results, results targeted at more technical users, or their choice of words may overlap with technical terms meaning something else and more complex.
If they click on a search result they (or google) think is relevant to their search and see an online forum of people responding bluntly, they’ll leave. They don’t know that the response is about something more complex. They can’t possibly tell. All they see is a culture of “You’re on your own, buddy”. That impression may stick with them, may even spread, and create a wall between techies and non-techies.
My vision is one where they’d see helpful answers, even if they don’t understand them, but they feel encouraged to ask. If it turns out this isn’t actually related to their issue, someone will point them the right way. I want that to be the impression we create. That includes answering more complex questions. That would benefit both the non-techies feeling more welcome, the veterans that probably have already read the docs and found them wanting and the beginners that need help learning to understand docs.
“RTFM” should under no circumstances be considered a reasonable answer. If you don’t want to help, don’t. If you want to help, give an explanation while pointing at the relevant section of the docs. Piping up just to tell people to go away and not asking questions is a dick move.
If we want break corporate monopolies, we need to be better than them, particularly in User Experience. Poor User Experience includes poor Pre-Experience while deciding whether to use a product. That means we need to project a welcoming image all around, not just selectively.