Let’s make Windows 10 the last version ever used!
*Sat. 28 Dec. 11h* Stage YELL #KDEEco 's Call To Action against e-waste driven by #Windows10.
*Mon. 30 Dec. 13-15h* B&B habitat join the BoF to organize a global #FreeSoftware campaign to raise awareness of Windows 10’s EoL in 2025, the role of software in #eWaste, and how independent, sustainable #FOSS is a solution to keep devices in use & out of the landfill.
https://fahrplan.alpaka.space/jugend-hackt-38c3-2024/talk/ST8NJA/
That’s the issue. The median user will get scared. They can’t accurately assess their own competence before they try it, and trying something new is scary. “What if I break something? What if I can’t undo it?” They won’t rely on docs or git pages or man pages or
--help(they may not want to touch the CLI at all), because ultimately, that would require them relying on their own understanding thereof.Impersonal docs, particularly if they’re not written with accessibility for laypeople in mind, can’t replace guides, and a general guide can’t replace specific advice, and none of these can replace the assurance of having a universally helpful support community that will hold their hand if they need it and reliably bail them out if something goes wrong. The median user cannot possibly teach themselves, because they lack the fundamental knowledge and confidence to even assess their level of understanding. You and I, we’re on the tech end of the distribution. We have a basic understanding and mindset. The median user does not.
They can’t trust themselves, so they need someone else to trust. If we want to welcome more people into the FOSS ecosystem in general and Linux in particular, we need to be that someone, and they need to know that they will have that support.
It’s not just about helping them, it’s about the public impression. If they google for assistance and only find threads telling people to RTFM, they’re scared to ask, scared to try even. The learning curve you take for granted, the skill “you need to improve”, looks a lot like a wall from that point of view.
Linux is still perceived as a rather technical thing. We need to cultivate the impression - and the community to back it up - that it’s not actually complicated, and that you’ll readily find people to help you if you take the leap.
Improving tech literacy is an important thing, no doubt, but you can’t get people on board by saying “you have to”. You have to coax them over by promising easy returns on a small investment of time and effort, then let their curiosity lead them further - if they need deeper skills at all.
Ah yes, because you have the choice of so many different documentations for everything, and all those documentations make sure to point out the others in case you landed on the wrong one for you.
Doesn’t have to be laziness. If your misconception is shattered, that’s a shock. If they don’t have anyone to ease them through that shock, they’ll do the most natural thing: stay away. If you make it easy to get into, you’ll surely have more success than by walling them off so that only those willing to climb can get into your walled garden.
I don’t get now where you want to go now. If you want to know about computers then read, if not… just keep using things that marketing sells you. If you want to ask without reading, then better pay for a professional (or ask for someone close to you that knows computers). Like all Windows users do when they have issues. And this would apply online, if you don’t pay them, why they need to read for you? Pay for the time professionals spend for you if you can’t read. Normally people don’t read complex documentation, they just need how to install some app or how to configure something from their desktop or printer drivers, pay or read how to do it, doesn’t matter if you are using Windows or Linux, because Windows also crashes and have issues also, Linux is ready for users.
Anything new is hard, if they are used to Windows as most people, everyone would think Windows is easier than Linux, but it’s just because they are used to the other OS. Get used to Linux. Use it, read how it works. Start small. Don’t read complex documentation or even try to compile the kernel on your first day.
Let me clarify: I myself have used Linux as my only OS since the end of Win7 support, but I’ve used it via dualboot for anything not gaming even before. I’m fairly adept by now, so this whole conversation isn’t about my personal learning.
It’s about coaxing Windows users over to Linux. If you don’t care about that, stop reading and stop replying, because that’s what the whole thread was about and you clearly missed the point. If you do, we need to give people both a reason to switch and an easy transition.
Linux has a public image of “complicated” and will always have the hurdle of having to learn something different. The point is that we need to update the first (the public perception) and help people over the second as smoothly as possible. We need to project the impression that it’s no longer complicated like it used to be, and if you need help with anything, there will be plenty of people willing to help you.
And that’s where we get to the “RTFM” issue: People responding to questions with “You’re on your own” harm that impression. A new user skimming a forum or googling some issue can’t tell whether it’s a simple question or a hard question, whether it’s good documentation or bad documentation, all they see is someone asking for help and getting a “lol no”. That reputation spreads, and it speaks to a self-centered culture where “figure it out yourself” isn’t just acceptable, but the norm.
If you want to win people over, you have to welcome them in. That includes showing a willingness to help them.
Besides, isn’t the whole point of FOSS to help each other out for free, to break the commercial cycle of enshittification and exploitation?