Hardcore Linux rambling

[cosmolinguist]

comradexavier was telling me yesterday, as he was installing Slackware 9.1 for me, that I should figure out all this stuff myself, so he doesn't have to do it all for me. I reminded him that it was his idea for me to be a Linux user in the first place, and I'd told him I was going to hold him responsible. He's usually pretty patient with my questions, but he also wants me to be self-sufficient.

I told him that it's silly of him to not tell me things he has figured out that I could use, and he says why should I? I had to learn them myself, you could too. The documentation is all there, you have to be able to find, decipher, and apply it. I agree, but I wouldn't mind a little help. Still, I see the point he's making, the philosophy that makes people think as he does. They didn't learn the things they know so they could fix other people's computers. They were not born with this knowledge, they had to figure everything out and they think anyone else could do what they did.

It seems a lot of the "anyone else" types don't think that, though. My parents, for instance, think my brother and I and our generation are so "good at computers" because we've been using them since we were in kindergarten. Pointing out that, in kindergarten, we used an Apple IIe to play Word Munchers and that bears almost no resemblance to the computing world of today has no effect, they insist that the details are unimportant and it's all about the familiarity of computers. They have a point, but I think they're exaggerating. Plenty of people my age are totally dumb about computers. Exposure is nice, but it's not the only thing.

What they really want to say is that computers are one of those things that only "other people" are good at, they never will be, and that's just how it is. They'll go along buying decent OEM machines and the newest version of Windows and they'll expect computers to be mysterious and crappy forever.

Some people don't want anything better. I don't understand that at all. Asking everyone to use Linux might be a bit extreme, but no one even wants to hear that there may be a better web browser out there than IE. Even if they admit that such a thing exists, they don't want to go to the trouble of obtaining it, even if you tell them it's almost no trouble at all and will make them happier.

I'm reminded of the GMC commercials that end with "It's not more than you need. Just more than you're used to." I think they're talking about an SUV or something that is in fact more than most people need, but the idea is nonetheless intriguing. People can get used to crappiness, and then not even want good things when they see them, perhaps only because they're not what they're used to. If people who understand their own computers are technocrats, these would be the serfs, bound not to the land they worked as the feudal serfs were, but to the computers they use but don't understand.

What all this has to do with my cluelessness when it comes to Linux, I am not sure.

Comments

[karaksindru.livejournal.com]

Funny thing about human nature ... We somehow manage to simultaneously excel at adapting (ourselves or our environment) and refusing to accept change. Creatures of habit that will change when forced to. People will work the same job for years on end, complaining to their co-workers and friends that their job sucks, usually not realizing they could probably quit and find a better job somewhere else, because they've gotten used to going to this crappy job day in and day out. This is why I find humanity fascinating, especially when the US (or sometimes the UN) "liberate" a country and install a new government, then are shocked when that government fails and reverts back to the previous system. The denizens had become adjusted to their system of government over generations and we think we can go in and change it over night?

err... sorry. Didn't mean to become so verbose in the comment...
--James

[cosmolinguist]

First, do not apologize for long comments here! It was a rather verbose entry, and the other comments have been as long as yours. Say what you want, and have no fear here. :-)

The more I think about this, the more it relates to everything else. I excitedly started an IM conversation with a friend of mine who's a grad student specializing in medieval history, telling him about my new theory about serfs and such. I thought of a car commercial. And now you bring in very good points about crappy jobs, and about the UN/US's foreign policy. Change is not something you can legislate. Staying the same might be ...

[kratkrat.livejournal.com]

Interesting analogy to the feudal system.

As for learning Linux: It is a little harder, I think, to learn on your own than if you were in an environment where you had to. I knew a little UNIX before starting my professional career, and a little bit of an unused programming language. I was sort of tossed into the deep end of a situation where I had to learn UNIX and Informix 4GL, though. I did... by shamelessly stealing from others! I would find scripts and code in our system that did roughly what I needed to do, or something similar, study them and take them apart mentally, and build my knowledge from that. I would look up stuff in the documentation only after getting started by tearing apart something else.

Because I had to learn it for work, I got good quickly... or I stayed for several 16 hour days. (Or, both.) and I had other peoples' stuff to build on and look at, stuff that I knew already worked and that was not as idealized as what one sees in a manual.

So, perhaps you can find an internship or some other thing that gives you access to other peoples' data and project needs. That will give you the chance to work on your skills, and have somebody else's work needs as both a driving force and a study guide behind your learning.

[photomoviegeek.livejournal.com]

"no one even wants to hear that there may be a better web browser out there than IE"--I couldn't agree more!! I hate using IE & only do when I have to for website compatibility. Altho KDE's Konqueror can be told to "impersonate" IE & Winblows & sometimes that fools those damn picky websites...

I really like the GMC analogy, too.

I gave up on Slackware 9.0 thinking it horribly unreliable (turns out it was my hardware, of course). But I'm familiar enough with Slack & Linux in general that I'd be glad to help. My AIM & Yahoo IDs are both photomoviegeek (for simplicity). And I'd still like to start a LUG. I saw you were online earlier tonite but had too many other distractions (reinstalling RedHat 9) to attempt to chat...

[cosmolinguist]

I'm using Slackware for the same reason I'm using Linux in the first place: it was Matthew's idea. :-) It's what he uses. He's one of those minimalists who likes everything--computer-related or not--to be "elegant," and apparently these are attributes of Slackware as well. I've never been near any other distro, of course, since the point of all this was that this is the only experience I've had with Linux, but I know Slack isn't really one of the user-friendly, good-for-people-who-are-new-at-this kinds, but I'm doing okay. If you offer yourself up for questions, though, you will get them. :-) Consider yourself warned. And thanks for the offer.