Day 991.b: Increased Nausea Networking Ballyhoos Why People Give Up on Using Linux

Clair of newlinuxuser posted a very interesting article on her blog today entitled, "Why People Give Up on Using Linux". Well, to sum it all up, people give up on Linux because it is just hard to use. All of the points that were raised were valid:

1. No equivalent proprietary software for a specialized task (eg. Photoshop vs. Gimp)
2. No proprietary driver support.
3. No helpful and POLITE technical support.

Well for me, issues one and two are easily remedied since 1. software is always improving and 2. OEMs are slowly testing the waters for a Linux market (ugh I hate that phrase).

As for issue 3. Well, it sucks.

I have been trying to address a simple Local Area Network concern now for almost a week and here is a sample of the things that were suggested to me.

1. A person who did not read through my entire question in #ubuntu pasted a prepared spiel on how I should ask a question. The guy actually told me "that if I wanted someone to help me, I should specify my concern" or something to that effect.

Well, I am not going to engage in a debate as to whether my question is complete or not. I can guarantee anyone that I don't waste words when it comes to details. 

2. Ubuntuforums is just plainly and simply overwhelmed by support requests.

The sheer volume of web hits to its support forum is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because traffic is always good it means people are actually using Ubuntu. It's bad because the people who are using it most often than not, require help for the simplest of matters - meaning, the operating system cannot help the users sufficiently or it gets broken a lot.

3. Self Proclaimed 1337 Masters of RTFM and KIAs

Nobody likes Know It Alls who condescend and lord it over in ubuntuforums and #ubuntu. These are the people who are not even legitimate KIAs - but they pretend to be. They make you feel as if you should have known about a one minute detail and tell everyone in the channel how unskilled you are.


Local Area Network Conundrum

I almost lost my internet connection because of some guide I used that was supposed to transform my Ubuntu PC into an Internet Connection Sharing gateway. The number of guides in Networking is simply too sparse and dense for me to comprehend.

The people in charge of developing Ubuntu should realize that Ubuntu and most Linux distributions are heavily dependent on Internet Connectivity and as such, they should focus on making Networking a piece of cake rather than flour, eggs, vanilla, sugar, wheat, baking powder, salt, water and frosting.

After all, that is the reason why the computer was invented right? To automate stuff and save time. Right? Right?