In my personal experience, whenever I’ve needed help, people have been nice and tried to help. But, my questions usually include as much context and details as I can give and even my own guess as to what’s going on, if I have one. I try to make my requests for help as enticing as I can. “I didn’t do anything and now my computer is broken” isn’t a very interesting or scrutable request for help, so I can understand the frustration volunteers get when repeatedly faced with those kinds of questions.
I also feel like some parts of the community might be starting to recognize that, if we want Linux to become mainstream, it has to be absurdly idiot-proof and friendly to newcomers. Afterall, the vast majority of people don’t want their computer to be their hobby, they just want it to facilitate other things.
In my personal experience, whenever I’ve needed help, people have been nice and tried to help. But, my questions usually include as much context and details as I can give and even my own guess as to what’s going on, if I have one. I try to make my requests for help as enticing as I can. “I didn’t do anything and now my computer is broken” isn’t a very interesting or scrutable request for help, so I can understand the frustration volunteers get when repeatedly faced with those kinds of questions.
I also feel like some parts of the community might be starting to recognize that, if we want Linux to become mainstream, it has to be absurdly idiot-proof and friendly to newcomers. Afterall, the vast majority of people don’t want their computer to be their hobby, they just want it to facilitate other things.