@catsalad NGL, there was one spotted in my area with a collar that had stopped working several miles ago and my first thought was "how do I put out stinky wet cat food without it freezing in sub-zero weather, life is so unfaaaaaair! T_T" XD

I mean maybe I'm an idiot, but I did calculate the amount of hamburger it would take to keep a cheetah once.

@lettosprey If I had to be cheeky? I'd say the solution is to charge. Like, Xtra-PC exists and uses some flavor of bog-standard Linux I can't recall at the moment, but what you're paying for is 1) a thumb drive with it on it and 2) support. They managed to make a whole business model around it. And maybe that's where to push people rather than to something free where they expect free support. Because let me tell you, having worked help desk for 14 years now, I would not have put up with all I do for free.

The problem I think is if you're going to recommend Linux, that's immediately an "and you have feed it and water it and..." situation that people all too often do not take the responsibility for. So when people bitch about Win11, and someone says "Linux" and walks off, it's just making it worse for everyone, because people are smart enough to find someone and it sucks being "someone."

@Linux_in_a_Bit

@lettosprey @Linux_in_a_Bit When it comes to files, folders, installation, I agree with you. Those are basic operating skills for a PC. The problem is that Millennials are the only generation who got any education in that and kids have iPads for school rather than a computer lab now. It's been that way for like a decade. They are operating on phones their whole lives.

We take files and folders for granted. We also take doorknobs for granted, but without knowing what it was, would you think to twist it? That's where they are.

That's not your problem or their fault, but what are their options? Who's going to teach them? Going back to cars, if they've done nothing but hop a train their whole life and now they need to drive a car, who's going to do Driver's Ed? Because the schools said, "welp, cars exist now, so all the kids will grow up knowing how to drive them!" And then proceeded to give them all train vouchers.

It doesn't have to be you, but someone has to teach them.

@lettosprey @Linux_in_a_Bit You have a fundamental misunderstanding. Devops is building. Nobody is asking the average driver to build a car. They are asking them to drive it.

But when it breaks and can't be driven, that's fixing it.

Building, driving, and fixing are three different things.

If an OS is a car, then people can drive it all day long without knowing anything beyond how to manipulate the steering wheel, pedals, shift, and, ideally, turn signal. Maintenance means filling up the gas and other fluids. Most people don't do more than the gas themselves.

People get trained to use an OS the same way.

You're saying every driver should also be a mechanic.

And no, it's NOT your job to do it for free. But Microsoft does it for pay. And people are willing to pay.

What people are NOT willing to do is go to what looks like a mechanic and be handed a manual and told RTFM.

Someone has to do the work. It doesn't have to be you, but it does have to be someone.

That's what this thread is about.

@lettosprey I am a child of the DOS era. I was also part of the small window when schools taught computer use. You are talking to the wrong person about knowing how to use a computer. :J

Welcome to 1994. The average person has never understood how their devices worked. Because prior to those things being "simplified away," computers were... *drum roll* limited to enthusiasts, specialists, or designated operators.

Like, by your logic, everyone should know how a car works. We use them every day. But the only one in my family who ever did was my grandpa, who cut his teeth on the Model A, and they later passed him by. We have mechanics now.

That's all people are asking for: a mechanic when things are broken. The same way they want a farmer for their food, or a doctor for their sick kid, because all of these things are simply too big for the average person to bear the load of. It's not stupidity, it's being overwhelmed.

@_RyekDarkener_@mastodon.social @Linux_in_a_Bit

@lettosprey @RyekDarkener@mastodon.social @Linux_in_a_Bit See, the problem with that and:

People get upset and frustrated because they have to invest a little time in figuring out how things work differently, and get mad because they don't get the answer in a "follow these simple step" fashioned, served instantly.

...is that Windows has this and the average Linux user drastically over-estimates the computer knowledge of the average user of literally anything else.

If I have an issue, I can Google it and quickly find step-by-step instructions I don't have to understand to execute. I mean I personally will, but the average person thinks turning your monitor off is turning your computer off, like heck will they take anything away from it.

You have to understand just how fundamentally, irreparably Microsoft has currently fucked Windows 11 for that kind of person to think Linux might be a better idea. That is "triangular wheels on your car" bad. In comparison, "square wheels and the mechanic screams at you" is better.

@CactuarJoe Oh, a tortie with a mask! My brother's cat was like that. We named her Phantom, after the Phantom of the Opera.