Ask yourself some simple questions. Am I annoying as many people as possible? Could I reach more people who are inferior to me? Has my track record of convincing noone to agree with me held firm? If you answered yes to all of these question you are the epitome of a fanboy, and I salute you sir or madam.
Don’t we all hate ‘em? Those relentless GoT spoiler numpties, the Star Wars fan that defends The Last Jedi, the Treky that can’t get over JJ Abrams sickening gut-wrenching abomination of a reboot (I’m totally over it by the way), all those plebs.
But Linux fanboys, wow those guys. They are by far and away completely equal with every other fandom out there. But you know what makes the Linux ones worse? They are right. Not just that they think they are always right, which is basically true. But because they ARE right. These guys can back up their claims with technical data, and so called “factual evidence”. Makes you sick doesn’t it.
They’ll talk about how FOSS has somehow improved the world. How it’s given access to a plethora of free source code, that’s been adapted, expanded and improved upon by countless programmers. These people talk about how businesses big and small alike can take advantage of systems and licensing that is just there, and you can use it, or not, as you see fit.
I try not to be one, I have to be honest. But it can be tough, hard to hold my tongue against the wilful ignorance of the masses. You know what? It feels good holding back, the smug superiority of knowing that I could have schooled those fools. Then they’ll see. I mean I still have those conversations, later on in my head. I always win those, they see the light then ...oh by God they do!
So what happens when you encounter a fanboy like me. You remind me, I mean them, of things they would rather forget. Keep them humble. They can’t take it at all, don’t worry about them. Poor fragile things. This is what you say.
ALSA, PulseAudio, take your pick they all suck. Nobody will defend those. Low hanging fruit though. Get these digs in early so they think this is all you have in your arsenal.
Yes the swept under the carpet Grub issue. Many people haven’t heard of this one, but Grub2 suffered from an issue where you could press backspace 28 times and gain root access to a machine. Crazy right, super simple. This fanboy might counter with the fact it was fixed within hours, like with any major OS bug. Or the fact that it required physical access to the machine limiting it’s reach. Even the fact that nobody really enabled this password protection at the grub level, so there was nothing to bypass in the first place. Just look them in the eye, and say “Backspace, 28 times”. Then maybe fart for punctuation or something, however you roll.
The arrogant elite are the final thing holding back mass adoption in my opinion. Yes there would be more Linux desktops out there if they came preinstalled and whatever. The game support list could and should be longer and so on. But really it’s not the inviting place it should be. It started as a niche, one that smart people flocked to. At that point a minority of that group who shouted the loudest lead to the atmosphere we’re all sick of. I’ve actually found it to be quite a helpful community in recent years, for the most part anyway. So long as you are direct and to the point with issues and keep it succinct. But even still woe betide anyone that reports a duplicate bug or missed and obscure link describing an existing fix. There’s room for improvement in any system.
At the end of the day most people are used to Windows, others are used to OSX. When they make the change to the handsome penguin there is no hook to keep them here. Only crutches that get in their way and lead to frustration. The learning curve is shrinking, but were lacking a hook. Pretty much everything built for Linux is open platform so you can find it again when you go back to Windows or OSX. So why stick with Linux? The generosity of Linux contributes to its downfall. If there was a kernel module that dispensed cocaine, I bet more people would stay riding the penguin.
For me I would like to see Linux users be humble, help others when you can and be thankful for the space we’ve already carved out. You know what? Here and now that’s the zone we’re kinda in (maybe on the cusp of). It feels good.
Love, Life and Peace,
Noki
Don’t we all hate ‘em? Those relentless GoT spoiler numpties, the Star Wars fan that defends The Last Jedi, the Treky that can’t get over JJ Abrams sickening gut-wrenching abomination of a reboot (I’m totally over it by the way), all those plebs.
But Linux fanboys, wow those guys. They are by far and away completely equal with every other fandom out there. But you know what makes the Linux ones worse? They are right. Not just that they think they are always right, which is basically true. But because they ARE right. These guys can back up their claims with technical data, and so called “factual evidence”. Makes you sick doesn’t it.
They’ll talk about how FOSS has somehow improved the world. How it’s given access to a plethora of free source code, that’s been adapted, expanded and improved upon by countless programmers. These people talk about how businesses big and small alike can take advantage of systems and licensing that is just there, and you can use it, or not, as you see fit.
I try not to be one, I have to be honest. But it can be tough, hard to hold my tongue against the wilful ignorance of the masses. You know what? It feels good holding back, the smug superiority of knowing that I could have schooled those fools. Then they’ll see. I mean I still have those conversations, later on in my head. I always win those, they see the light then ...oh by God they do!
So what happens when you encounter a fanboy like me. You remind me, I mean them, of things they would rather forget. Keep them humble. They can’t take it at all, don’t worry about them. Poor fragile things. This is what you say.
Pardon?
Lack of speed and Quality
I mean you know, who wants those things right? In the real world does that really matter? Are we so shallow that this is all we care about? Really rub this one in, it’ll sting trust me. Linux was not built with quality in mind, it was built to be lightweight and adaptable. Linus ‘the adonis’ Torvalds has said himself that 20 years of development has lead to a bloated kernel full of hacks and patches that nobody plans on ever fixing. Resulting in poorer performance, but don’t fret. Computer hardware is so fast nowadays that it’s hard to notice. Thus solving the problem once and for all!Backspace Bug
It’s not me, it’s YOU.
The Linux development community can be notoriously defensive and quick to blame others for stupidity. This unfriendly environment leads to problems not being fixed and prevents those who might have an important contribution to make not even get started in the first place. I think things are changing for the better on the whole. With the mass adoption of the Linux kernel into IOT devices there is some serious money behind getting things done. This is good and bad for many many obvious reasons.Bottom Line
Thing is people need to be attracted to it too. It’s not enough that it’s a fuzzy place filled with cotton candy and fireworks. But that would be a start. Those of us who advocate for it’s proliferation would have a leg to stand on. Give us half a chance to share in the satisfaction we have. I never had that with Windows. Not since the XP days, and even then it was mostly what Windows gave me access to. Linux I enjoy how it’s mine, I took something and made it my own. Never had that under anything but Linux. Even Android lacks this forcing devices to be flashed and jumping through hoops just to move and few buttons around.At the end of the day most people are used to Windows, others are used to OSX. When they make the change to the handsome penguin there is no hook to keep them here. Only crutches that get in their way and lead to frustration. The learning curve is shrinking, but were lacking a hook. Pretty much everything built for Linux is open platform so you can find it again when you go back to Windows or OSX. So why stick with Linux? The generosity of Linux contributes to its downfall. If there was a kernel module that dispensed cocaine, I bet more people would stay riding the penguin.
For me I would like to see Linux users be humble, help others when you can and be thankful for the space we’ve already carved out. You know what? Here and now that’s the zone we’re kinda in (maybe on the cusp of). It feels good.
Love, Life and Peace,
Noki
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