Eden: Eden: The first, thinking that the Linux community as a whole is actually a community. Its not. Id argue that its a bunch of communities that share some similar principles. Most of them are decent people. some are elitist idiots that cant see outside their own little world.

Literally nobody outside of people who are either already in it, or have peeked in through the window, know that though. What I’m addressing in this post is sort of the more frustrated version of yours. Ie how can we, people who are in the know about Linux, best help people who are not. And people who are NOT in the know, tend to take ridiculously small sample sizes when it comes to new groups. One or two bad eggs and they’re gone. WHICH IS WHY I am very very very very much in favour of the sample size they take being of normal, CALM, rational people who just happen to know about this thing they’re seeking info about. THE PROBLEM BEING, the threshold for a bad egg in the Linux community seems to be on par with the LoL community, ie the likelihood somebody is going to run into a complete gibbering moron seems REALLY REALLY HIGH to me, and I am trying to emphasise that these are the kinds of behaviours I have seen both on this forum, and abroad, and we might serve ourselves better if we first recognised some of these behaviours, and made it a point not to do them.

Eden: Eden: ? In relation to Linux?

the prevailing attitude of one product being better and the constant hyping of that product, in conjunction to the demonising of other products purely on the basis of how the company runs, gets very very tiring. It gets to the point where buying into said circlejerk becomes extremely unappealing, even if the product being hyped has legitimate good traits.

Eden: Eden: Does anyone think this?

yes. I can’t really be more specific due to being too tired to go dig up posts which would then cause even more drama, but yes, I have observed people who do think this.

Eden: Eden: Id also keep in mind, that if the openness (freedom) of a program is important to someone then most if not all open programs are better for them than closed ones.

we touched on this in another thread and we left it at me having no desire to take things to an ideological level, and I don’t believe there was any animosity or argument from you about it being my right to do that. That was one of my assertions, though, that not everyone is going to care about it that much, and the ideological side of things isn’t going to necessarily interest people as much as what Linux can do for them [ie save them software fees at for school, etc] right now.

Eden: Eden: In what way? Bad for the gaming industry? Bad, in that gaming on windows has more games?

it’s bad in the way people present it as "oh no dawg, you can totally game on Linux, you can totally ditch Windows. You should ditch Windows dawg, you totally should."

No. You shouldn’t. Gaming on Linux is extremely limited, and not really viable for hardcore gamers. Again, I’m not talking about THIS POST RIGHT HERE IS WHERE THIS WAS SAID BY THIS USER HERE. I’m talking about implications. I have seen this argued before, and any dissenting opinions get shut down.

Eden: Eden: Command line programs (for the most part) are superior than their GUI counterparts because there more complex

again, if I can talk as someone who is more in the new user camp [no IT background, Windows only user until a few years ago] than not, I can tell you from the bottom of my soul that new users will not give two flying monkies. They want something that works, and that they can access easily. Yet again, I’m referring to the general attitude of the “”""“community”"""", being that GUI is for plebs and CLI is superior, and if you can’t figure it out, RTFM. I cannot accurately express the sheer unfiltered loathing that I feel when I see any permutation of that sentiment when it’s thrown in people’s face like it so often is. That is honestly one of the things I would cite as a reason for people to abandon Linux and flee to the fucking hills if they’re not already invested. Which is also why I want to make it painfully obvious that I will never be like that, I will shirk any association with being a “Linux user” if I have to, and I will try to get them the PRECISE, EXACT information they need. I know how it feels to be waiting quietly for help only to have @rch_l0rd1337 tell me about the man page, and the desire to smother them with their Stallman body pillow bubble up inside of me. People don’t need to be told that, they need HELP. They want to be able to get on with their task in Linux, and I’m glad that attitude isn’t heavily present here.

Eden: Eden: There’s nothing wrong with suggesting hardware that works with free software. I’ll more likely suggest AMD

that sort of ties in with my earlier point about the circlejerk/hype aspect. One thread on here was a user stating he wanted a new CPU for a PURELY GAMING BUILD, and CLEARLY stated they would “rather not” go with AMD. Guess what the first several recommendations where. They eventually decided on AMD and may or may not be perfectly happy at the moment, but I was in awe of the deliberate disregard. THAT’S NOT WHAT THEY ASKED FOR! I am perfectly happy to shut up and let AMD people trot out their recommendations when somebody specifically asks for it, or when the question is open-ended enough for people to quickly surmise an answer based on the needs presented, but as custodians of whomever wanders in here and asks for our help, do not not believe that we should put personal bias down for five seconds and actually listen to what’s being asked? That was perhaps my main point, that I am tired of seeing the same copy/paste biased behaviour i’ve seen on Reddit and other Linux sites, and we have a chance not to be like that.