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View Full Version : Wow, are Linux users just a lot more friendlier?



prince_alfie
May 8th, 2007, 03:12 PM
No kidding... I am transitioning most of my tech devices at home from Vista and Mac OS X (mostly the latter) to Ubuntu Linux and just am stunned at the receptiveness of the help that I've been receiving here. For example, I had a big question about how to install rhythmbox-0.9.6 using the command line and well, I got so many good answers that I was happy.

I feel like over here I get quicker and better and friendlier tech support than say at thevistaforums.com or macrumors.com where I used to hang out at.

Apparently I feel like open source guys here are more friendlier (bad grammar but conveys what I wish to say) than most of the other guys? And truly knowledgeable about the sudo commands, etc. :D

laxmanb
May 8th, 2007, 03:18 PM
I had a problem with Windows 98. posted it on the MS forums... problem solved in less than 3 hours...

So no, I think people are helpful/friendly irrespecitive of their OS...

beercz
May 8th, 2007, 03:21 PM
No kidding... I am transitioning most of my tech devices at home from Vista and Mac OS X (mostly the latter) to Ubuntu Linux and just am stunned at the receptiveness of the help that I've been receiving here. For example, I had a big question about how to install rhythmbox-0.9.6 using the command line and well, I got so many good answers that I was happy.

I feel like over here I get quicker and better and friendlier tech support than say at thevistaforums.com or macrumors.com where I used to hang out at.

Apparently I feel like open source guys here are more friendlier (bad grammar but conveys what I wish to say) than most of the other guys? And truly knowledgeable about the sudo commands, etc. :D
On behalf of the community can I just say "You're welcome!"

Thanks for the feedback.

jerrylamos
May 8th, 2007, 03:23 PM
Well, my experience with commercial companies is that the employee attitude comes straight from the top.

Bill Gates as capable as he is has/had a reputation of being harsh, brutal, and "crush the competition for crushing's sake".

The good experience your getting is the attitude from the top with Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth, and ultimately Linux's Linus Torvalds and GNU's Richard Stallman.

Cheers, Jerry:)

karellen
May 8th, 2007, 03:28 PM
yeap, they really are. and from all the linux distro, ubuntu has by far the greatest community ;)

jiminycricket
May 8th, 2007, 03:37 PM
The gentoo forums (http://forums.gentoo.org/)are great too,

Also, I hope to throw this post in the face of the next person who says that Linux posters are a crabby bunch who shout "RTFM!" to newbies. ;)

(ok, perhaps crabby is still correct)

TravisNewman
May 8th, 2007, 03:44 PM
It's all about the community. Some forums would have just said RTFM! and been done with you. Makes me wonder why they created the community to begin with.

Many linux users are RTFM-ers. But you see that very rarely around here.

ticopelp
May 8th, 2007, 03:49 PM
I have met some incredibly unfriendly Linux users who really do fit the negative stereotype. However, I've yet to meet anyone like that in this community. Everyone here is extraordinarily helpful.

kvonb
May 8th, 2007, 03:57 PM
Yeah, get on the Fedora forums and start asking some newbie questions, see how friendly they are!

That's the big reason that I stuck with Ubuntu, the forum is friendly and helpful :).

Mateo
May 8th, 2007, 03:57 PM
yes, very friendly, as long as you don't criticize the OS (in any way), because then the fangs come out.

EdThaSlayer
May 8th, 2007, 04:00 PM
Its probably that we are very happy about the operating system we use, and want others to use it. Also, we want new users, so that new user can help other new users. Basically, as panickedthumb said, we are a community! :D Thanks for your kind words topic creator!

plb
May 8th, 2007, 04:11 PM
I'd say most of that friendly attitude is just here lol.

goumples
May 8th, 2007, 04:34 PM
Not all Linux users, but I'd have to say the people at Ubuntu (Canonical) and the Ubuntu community is by far a more helpful and friendly lot. The community is one of the reasons is Linux is so damn good. \\:D/

Brunellus
May 8th, 2007, 04:46 PM
bash.org has a hilarious take on this (http://bash.org/?152037)

forrestcupp
May 8th, 2007, 06:08 PM
yes, very friendly, as long as you don't criticize the OS (in any way), because then the fangs come out.

+1

They'll give their life for you as long as you don't cross them; then they'll take the life out of you.

igknighted
May 8th, 2007, 06:13 PM
Yeah, get on the Fedora forums and start asking some newbie questions, see how friendly they are!

That's the big reason that I stuck with Ubuntu, the forum is friendly and helpful :).

Really? I have found fedoraforum.org to be the best forum outside of ubuntuforums.org. Yes, the userbase tends to be more experienced, but they are very helpful. They do tend to steer new users towards distro's like Ubuntu, as Fedora isn't really aimed at new users, but its a helpful thing, not meant as a putdown in any way.

DoctorMO
May 8th, 2007, 06:28 PM
yes, very friendly, as long as you don't criticize the OS (in any way), because then the fangs come out.

It's a community thing, you go onto the Newcastle United FC forums and start spouting off about how Manchester United or Sunderland could wipe the floor with them any day, and besides you don't know how anyone could get so upset as it's just kicking a round ball around a grassy field no exactly important.... You will then have hundreds of normally very nice Geordies looking to see if you left an address of your profile so they can personally shake your throat in thanks at your suggestive and informative comments.

You don't want to know what happens when you go onto the physics forums and criticise Wilhelm Wien.

So the anwser is: don't go looking for a fight, because with ANY community you will find one.

M$LOL
May 8th, 2007, 06:37 PM
Meh, I try to help people here because of the help I got when I needed it.

Foxmike
May 8th, 2007, 06:53 PM
yes, very friendly, as long as you don't criticize the OS (in any way), because then the fangs come out.

Untrue. Constructive critisism is for the most time (there is always exceptions) welcome. Destructive critisism like this


He's right though. Dependacy hell is hell. People like to pretend like all software is in the repositories but that is blatant lie. MANY programs are not in the repos. This is canonical's fault because they are zealots who won't put new software into the repositories except twice a year. This is why they are out-of-touch, they think a minor unimportant bug is more important than software. PEOPLE WANT SOFTWARE. With linux if you have to start compiling from source more than likely you're going to run into some dependency issues from time to time. This is not easy and there is no excuse for this not being priority #1 to fix. This means making DEB files easily accessible, and if canonical are too fundamentalist to put software in repos they need to make unofficials debs available on the internet.

in which there is personnal attack


This is canonical's fault because they are zealots

without giving any path to solution is hard to take.

-FM

Blondie
May 9th, 2007, 02:33 AM
No kidding... I am transitioning most of my tech devices at home from Vista and Mac OS X (mostly the latter) to Ubuntu Linux and just am stunned at the receptiveness of the help that I've been receiving here. For example, I had a big question about how to install rhythmbox-0.9.6 using the command line and well, I got so many good answers that I was happy.

I feel like over here I get quicker and better and friendlier tech support than say at thevistaforums.com or macrumors.com where I used to hang out at.

Apparently I feel like open source guys here are more friendlier (bad grammar but conveys what I wish to say) than most of the other guys? And truly knowledgeable about the sudo commands, etc. :D

As both a user and supplier of advice on this forum I agree. The people here are hobbyists and idealists more so than for Windows or OSX and have a greater motivation to help, either to show their skills or for the noble cause of FOSS. IMO this produces superior support, though it varies by distro - the Ubuntu and Gentoo forums tend to be the best amongst Linux distros.

Somenoob
May 9th, 2007, 03:01 AM
I think this extreme friendliness and helpfulness is a psychological Geek trait :)

FuturePilot
May 9th, 2007, 03:18 AM
The Ubuntu community has to be the most friendly one out there.

PrimoTurbo
May 9th, 2007, 03:35 AM
Ubuntu community is geared towards accepting new users so they are friendly, I remember back in the day the Linux community for certain distros was very unfriendly and anti-newuser.

I asked how to mount a fat32 drive and the responses I got was that I should use windows instead or switch 100% to linux. Also certain things were not accepted and you would get a read the manual response.

blackspyder
May 9th, 2007, 04:08 AM
ubuntu users are in general very friendly. I think this comes from a community mentality. I remember getting RTFM'd a bunch in other linux forums. Simple questions like
'How do I bypass PCAngel?' get responded to by "just reformat your Hard drive you dont need windows." Needless to say I was truly happy to find a community like this supporting Ubuntu.

Polygon
May 9th, 2007, 04:26 AM
it really depends on the community. Users on a certain linux distro's forums basically told me to shut up and stop posting about that bug when i asked why i cant get my wireless card working with their distro. I responded by never visiting that forum or trying that distro again.

ubuntuforums are by far the busiest and most friendly and well run forums i have ever been too. props to all users and moderators for creating such a community ;)

ubuntu27
May 9th, 2007, 04:56 AM
Yeah, this community is awesome. Good thing We are aprt of it.


bash.org has a hilarious take on this (http://bash.org/?152037)

Did anybody read that?

I will posrt for those who dosn't like to open a new tab :P

<dm> I discovered that you'd never get an answer to a problem from Linux Gurus by asking. You have to troll in order for someone to help you with a Linux problem.
<dm> For example, I didn't know how to find files by contents and the man pages were way too confusing. What did I do? I knew from experience that if I just asked, I'd be told to read the man pages even though it was too hard for me.
<dm> Instead, I did what works. Trolling. By stating that Linux sucked because it was so hard to find a file compared to Windows, I got every self-described Linux Guru around the world coming to my aid. They gave me examples after examples of different ways to do it. All this in order to prove to everyone that Linux was better.
* ion has quit IRC (Ping timeout)
<dm> brings a tear to my eye... :') so true..
<dm> So if you're starting out Linux, I advise you to use the same method as I did to get help. Start the sentence with "Linux is gay because it can't do XXX like Windows can". You will have PhDs running to tell you how to solve your problems.
<dm> this person must be a kindred spirit of mine

DoctorMO
May 9th, 2007, 05:27 AM
ubuntuforums are by far the busiest and most friendly and well run forums i have ever been too. props to all users and moderators for creating such a community

I blame asuiye (or how ever you spell that cats name)


Ubuntu community is geared towards accepting new users so they are friendly, I remember back in the day the Linux community for certain distros was very unfriendly and anti-newuser.

I asked how to mount a fat32 drive and the responses I got was that I should use windows instead or switch 100% to linux. Also certain things were not accepted and you would get a read the manual response.

Unfortunately you've got three different kinds of unfriendly people in a community:

1) Busy programmers who are on a chat room or in a forum to read and talk about advanced topics and can't be bothered with niceties (lots of traditional linux programmers were like this)
2) People who consider their linux training and skills to be impressive and are not into helping but mealy like to show off, making new user questions irritating and unimpressive to answer.
3) Poisonous people, either frustrated with their own efforts or lack of help, people who take a vindictive streak towards others because of their stress, most end up posting the 'Linux sux, isn't rdy for My Desktop or My Computer icons' posts. You'll also get advanced users who have turned poisonous as they develop a bad community experience.

So people in ubuntu are mostly patient and user facing, not programmers them selves and arn't ego centric. so 1 and 2 aren't big problems. we try and help as many people as possible so 3 is limited although we still suffer from people who have not searched the forums, help pages and wikis for answers and post ubuntu not ready posts. nothing you can do about those.

Pocadotty
May 9th, 2007, 05:59 AM
I chose Ubuntu because it is user friendly, powerful, and reliable. It is an OS that I feel good about, and I think most of us do.

I have used Fedora core before and wasn't a huge fan, it has its advantages don't get me wrong, but there is something special about Ubuntu.

Something about the "Linux for Human Beings" thing might be seeping in the forum and causing us to be extra nice.

Anthem
May 9th, 2007, 06:06 AM
A lot more friendlier?

Hardly. On a windows forum, nobody would have criticized your poor grammar.

:D

steven8
May 9th, 2007, 07:29 AM
A lot more friendlier?

Hardly. On a windows forum, nobody would have criticized your poor grammar.

:D

They wouldn't have noticed. :lolflag:

OP. . .welcome to Ubuntu. It's great to have you here!!!!!