How-to "help" someone use a computer.

[alex_101]

Honestly I have met a lot of people who already knows theres alternatives that exist like Ubuntu and Mint being how popular they ended up getting being that they are an average american consumer.

However the biggest complaints I got from my friends and co-workers was even though I was able to help them get started was some of the response they have gotten either on chat or the forums like "google is your friend" or "if you search the forums it has already been asked". When someone explores a new idea, and attempts Linux installs there is nothing more frustrating than someone commenting or posting just to make an average person who wants to learn but isn't quite literate in all areas to know the best way to even lookup articles. We should all should know that google, yahoo, or even forums searches don't accurately lookup the best article for technical problems on Linux installs and in fact, I have had to adapt some how to's from Arch or Fedora to do some configurations that never were documented well in both Ubuntu or Mint.

(Moderator note:
this topic was split off from this one.)

[Rocky Bennett]

I agree with you 100%, there are many forums out there dedicated to a particular distro or another, where the senior members say exactly what you said, and they say it in a mean way. Every little question gets the answer, "can't you Google it?" or "this question has been asked a million times, just look." This is no way to treat a newbie that is genuinely interested in learning something about Linux, but that attitude does exist on many Linux forums.

That is the one reason that I continue to hang out here at the Linux Mint Forum, that attitude does not exist. I am not even running Linux Mint right now, I have Debian installed, but I love this forum and the people so I continue to hang out here. I also recommend Bleeping Computer for a nice friendly place to get help.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums ... inux-unix/

I am glad that you are here and I hope that you continue to spread the word of Linux to your friends and family.

Rocky Bennett

[jimallyn]

alex_101, I have seen a little of that sort of thing on Linux forums, certainly less of it on the Mint forums than some of the others. And certainly less of it now than I used to see 14 years ago when I first started using Linux. Back then, RTFM (Read The, er, Friendly Manual) was very common. But the attitudes of Linux users have changed. A lot. I think now a lot of the advanced users think more along the lines of hey, this is a great thing we've got here, let's share it with everybody. For me, when I discovered Linux, it was like finding a great new restaurant in town: I wanted to tell all my friends about it. (And I do!)

I've probably been guilty of telling someone to search the forums, usually after having solved the same problem several days in a row. Everybody here is human, you know, and we sometimes tire of seeing the same questions again and again. (Now I often bookmark the solution to common problems, so I don't have to go searching for them again, I can just give them the link.) But I have also spent a great amount of time searching for solutions for the problems people are having. Just the other day, a Mint user asked about how to get a certain program installed with all the documentation and help files. I had never heard of the program before, but I tracked it down, figured out the easiest way to get a full install done, and posted the step-by-step for him. I'm not bragging on myself, I have seen others do this, too. (And I'm still not sure what that program does, but I was able to tell him how to install it.)

Anyway, if you get told "search the forums", or even "RTFM" now and then, try to ignore it. Somebody else will probably come by and politely help you solve the problem. Also, note that, as a moderator, I have on occasion told people to be more polite or go somewhere else. We are here to solve problems, not to be rude to people.

[Habitual]

Every thing I learned about Linux, I downloaded off the internet, usually by reading.

[altair4]

Back then, RTFM (Read The, er, Friendly Manual) was very common. But the attitudes of Linux users have changed.

I don't understand the objection to suggesting rtfm:

tester@vmint180cinn ~ $ rtfm chown
CHOWN(1) User Commands CHOWN(1)

NAME
chown - change file owner and group

SYNOPSIS
chown [OPTION]... [OWNER][:[GROUP]] FILE...
chown [OPTION]... --reference=RFILE FILE...

DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the GNU version of chown.

[majpooper]

I think a lot of it stems from not have basic computer literacy. For example the other day someone asked me how to get their Google on their desktop like they had with Windows. Not so long before that another person told me they could not find their "personal" and that their desktop was being populated with "little" abc boxes every time they made an entry in GnuCash and wanted to know how to get rid of them. Pretty easy problems to solve but had to question them a little to make sure I wasn't jumping to assumptions as to what they meant. I really think they would be at a loss as to how to pose these questions in forum.

[jimallyn]

I think a lot of it stems from not have basic computer literacy.

I have seen a lot of that recently. The local senior center has a computer club, which I have been attending regularly. Mostly Win10 and Win7 users. A substantial portion of them don't know the difference between the internet, a web browser, and a search engine. They ask questions that make no sense at all, and one has to struggle to get out of them what they are really trying to ask. I am going to do a presentation on open source software and Linux there in May. Wish me luck.