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Clueless Users Are Bad For Debian
Helmholtz writes "I just got done reading a very interesting article about Debian and Clueless Users that appeared on the Debian Weekly News site. I think this article would be a very good thing for users of all distributions to read, as it touches upon what might become a very real problem. Now that the word "Linux" has been splashed around by such 'heavyweights' as CNN and NPR, everyone who want to be seen as a 'cool computer guy' is trying to get Linux up. This of course is done without any heed to the absolute requirement that some Documentation-reading. And then these same people get angry when they try to install Linux and it doesn't 'just run'. I'm not try to harass anyone new to Linux, but I really think that it isn't emphasized enough that Linux is great because it requires some learning to occur. This is a concept that the Debian article holds at its core, I believe. "
This guy doesn't seem to distinguish between "clueless" and "newbie". IMHO, someone who doesn't know very much but is eager and willing to learn is a "newbie". Someone who may have been using a system for years, but who wants to be spoonfed, doesn't want to think for h(im|er)self and won't listen to what you say is "clueless".
All being well, I will be attempting my first Linux install in a few months time (probably the m68k version of Debian). I'm not afraid of reading documentation. Actually, I love reading documentation. I've started already - I tend to start soaking up information weeks ahead of time, so I'm prepared for things when they happen. However, if worst comes to worst, and I need help from another human being, it looks like I can expect to be hit over the head with a bunch of HOWTOs and told I didn't try hard enough.
Note to the condescending hackers reading this - you were newbies once. If nobody helped you, then I'm sorry you had such a hard time, but this doesn't justify you giving a hard time to other people who want to learn.