or any open source community for that matter, is that there are too many people who spend more time voicing their biased opinions than actually wanting to provide any kind of support to the people who seek it.
Every time I’ve ever logged into the Ubuntu Forums I’ve seen all sorts of conduct which really turns new users off. I see this all of the time, New user X asks, experienced user Y a simple question, where experienced user Y responds negatively to new user X. Congratulations, market share just went down. This is present in any Linux community I’ve ever been a member of. (I’m not saying I’m not guilty of this either).
The problem is that the more experienced Linux users are not willing to change, not because they don’t want too, but because they don’t see the problem.
Let’s look at the Proprietary software situation for example:
New users don’t want to log into a support forum, ask about dual booting and see loads of posts using “clever” names such as microsuck, micro$oft, microshaft, M$, or even winblows. Not only are these comments overly negative, many of them are inappropriate. Who wants to use a product that’s users generally have the demeanor of a 12 year old. Let’s grow up people. You’re not creative for insulting Microsoft, Apple, or any other proprietary company. We’re not getting anywhere by insulting people, because the people we’re insulting obviously don’t care that we do it if they aren’t changing.
Next, we should have a look at the distribution arguments:
When someone logs into a forum asking something about some distribution, they don’t care if you don’t have that problem in another. They did not ask about what you think of their distro of choice, they asked for help and you fed them a whole load of useless information. Not only do you become a spammer, but you’re also earning the reputation of being a conversation killer and a jerk. Congratulations. Now what you could do instead of telling them their distro sucks, is to point them in the right direction. Even if you don’t know anything about the problem, it never hurts to point them to another community, a wiki with extensive documentation, or even a google search result page with relevant results..this way you avoid spamming, provide them with even a small amount of information, and could possibly keep them coming back to Linux.
And last, the GUI mentality:
Despite what most power users think, a GUI is actually neccesary to product growth in the software world. Want some proof? Have a look at Windows, or OS X. Both operating systems capitalized on ease of use, and looks. These two characteristics are achieved by their GUI (obviously). Many people reading this will probably say that the command line is faster and more convenient, and I agree. However, being forced into using the command line when you don’t know how to use it causes people to abandon Linux. A friend of mine stopped using Linux for this very reason. I am in no way trying to say we should kill the command line. I just think that if a user asks for instructions from the GUI, they should be given them. GUI config tools are a necessity, not many people are fond of editing config files. We aren’t in the 80’s and 90’s anymore, I’m sorry to break it to you.
I know that this entry will anger some people, but the truth sucks. The negativity that is occurring in the open source community needs to stop if we ever plan on attracting more users. When the community stops bitching at itself, maybe it will actually pay attention to others.
