Pete Theisen wrote:
[snip]
> I have been lurking tech lists for years but it is very hard to reach
> the first rung where you are conversant enough with tech vocabulary and
> tech culture where you can post a question without pi55ing half of the
> list off.
>
> I think the Linux community is bitterly divided as to whether they want
> to expand to include users or if they want to remain a closed clique of
> tech geeks. Someone trying to get his/her bearings in Linux gets caught
> in the divide a lot.
>
I don't see "the Linux community" as being so bitterly divided. I think
what you perceive as a bitter divide is what happens when you run across
bitter members of the unreceptive side of a quiet separation of
motivations. On one side of that separation contains the "enthusiasts"
and otherwise friendly sorts who want to help you learn to use Linux.
These are people that like what they're doing and, in at least some
small way, want to help others have the same enjoyment. On the other
side are those who just use what they want to use and don't give a damn
whether you use it or not.
If you pester anyone enough, they'll get annoyed. It takes a lot longer
to annoy someone on the enthusiastic side of things than someone on the
"don't care, just use it" side. These latter folks don't want you
bothering them at all, so it can take as little as one or two questions
to annoy them. Often, these are people that started out using Linux
with zero help, and figure you should be able to do the same if need be.
They tend to respond to the suggestion that they should help others
learn about Linux with something like "If he wants to use the best tool
for the job, he'll put the effort in to learn it without my help. If
he's just some starry-eyed kid wowed by popular buzz, then he can go
back to Winderz. I don't care." The former folks, though, were often
those who received a lot of support when they first started using Linux,
and feel like passing their own knowledge along is just the Right Thing
To Do. There are varying degrees of patience in each of these people,
though, and if someone consistently fails to look up any answers for
himself, just expecting his local Linux guru to "just do" everything for
him, even the most enthusiastic will eventually tire of providing
involved tech support for free.
Obviously, this is all a big generalization. There are exceptions to
every rule, and to every generalization. There are even a few people
out there who are motivated by a desire to make Linux users into some
kind of elitist club. They're pretty few and far between, though, and
tend to end up looking like idiots when they post something about how
only "real hackers", or whatever term they use, should be "allowed" to
use Linux. I don't know of any on this list, though.
I have a few URLs for you. A couple of them come from the PerlMonks
site, and a third is also about Perl, but the principles in them can be
easily adapted to whatever tech-geek online discussion venue you visit.
Reading these essays is something I'd recommend to everyone,
everywhere, that is going to interact with the larget Linux community.
I've read them. I'm sure Linux Torvalds has, at minimum, read the one
by ESR.
http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=50427
http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=172086
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
http://perl.plover.com/Questions.html
-- Chad ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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