Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮Jul 12, 2023

XDA claim they're a "leading tech publication".

They published an article titled: "Why I like Linux on my Steam Deck but not my desktop"

-> Uses tiny and basically unsupported obscure Linux distribution to make a case against it on the desktop.

-> Also thinks somehow Proton is only on Steam Deck?

Please, if you're going to publish a Linux article, get your writers to do more than 1 minute research into it.

Show threadLiam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

There's this weird repeating problem of people expecting to instantly know how something works, despite basically never using it.

I see this everywhere, not just Linux. In this case though, I see articles like it still *all the time* and the big issue is just to get clicks.

Jul 12, 2023 at 10:00amWeb
Show threadLiam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮Jul 12, 2023
*They’ve now rewritten it with a different editor
Show threadDavidJul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux without context it looked like you're saying they swapped emacs for vim or something haha!
Show threadRichard DevineJul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux I might have shared some opinions with my buddy who works over there, no idea if they got passed on or the social backlash eventually twigged. Adam is a good guy though.
Show threadAndy PriceJul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux I usually advise Windows users trying out Linux to remember their very first experiences of Windows while they're getting familiar with the environment, to steer them away from the expectation that it's going to be a drop-in replacement. Expect a learning curve, expect workflow adjustments, expect more freedom and control in the end.
Show threadRichard DevineJul 12, 2023
@andyprice @gamingonlinux This is such a brilliant way to describe it. I first started trying Linux during the great Covid lockdown of 2020. Knew nothing at all. Had such a blast learning how things work, still do to this day.
Show threadDakki ReadsJul 12, 2023
@andyprice @gamingonlinux 100%. All technologies inevitably have a learning curve, it just happens that most users are past the initial curve on Windows.
Show threadJanne MorenJul 12, 2023

@gamingonlinux
The expectation is there because, frankly, for the most part it's true.

When did you last crack open a manual for your smartphone, fridge, car, TV, phone app or game console? Designers have spent untold hours over decades making this largely possible.

PCs - including Windows and osx - really stand out here, in a bad way.

Show threadLiam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮Jul 12, 2023
@jannem I've looked up how to do things on my iphone quite a lot actually, same with a lot of things - people assume too much of themselves
Show threadJohn Wyatt 🐧Jul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux @jannem yeah phone and even mac os x is a bad example. I struggle now with how to do simple file operations on Mac. They hide things a lot these days.
Show threadJanne MorenJul 12, 2023

@sageofredondo @gamingonlinux
I specifically included Windows and OSX as problematic, along with Linux.

The PC platform requires a whole different level of non-obvious knowledge to even get started, far more than, say, smartphones, the next most difficult device we have.

Show threadWuselJul 12, 2023
@jannem @gamingonlinux I am not convinced that Windows is intuitive. It is just everywhere to an extent that it has become the norm. I recently had to go back to Windows and I was lost coming from KDE.
Show threadFrankie SaxxJul 12, 2023
@jannem
every time I rent a car I end up having to search up a copy of the manual to: enable the passenger airbag, turn off/adjust the auto off (great at lights, not so much for roundabouts), how to use the speed limiter and cruise control, how to raise the driver's seat (not just slide forward or back) etc
@gamingonlinux
Show threadlime!Jul 12, 2023
@jannem @gamingonlinux every time i get something new i read through the manual. and the eula, if applicable. that's how you learn what things can do, and how that feature set may differ from what you want. if my fridge's auto-defrost feature just dumps water on the floor, i want to know about it. if my headphones don't support changing the volume without an app that requires signing up and illegally stores user data in the US, i want to know about that too. both of these things happened to me.
Show threadlime!Jul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux this brings up an interesting dichotomy with videogames. if you are bad at a videogame and would like it to be more welcome to new players you are told to "git gud". i wonder if this guy feels the same about dark souls as he does about linux.
Show threadlime!Jul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux anyway that's why dark souls should have an easy mode
Show threadAnton 🏳️‍🌈 🇬🇷Pappas (he/him)Jul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux This describes the LTT Linux challenge pretty accurately.
Show threadSapienXJul 12, 2023
@antnisp Was going to say the same thing. Love LTT but that whole series was frustrating to watch.
Show threadvinzJul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux Dunning Kruger Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Dunning–Kruger effect - Wikipedia

Show threadAntonio Teixeira Jul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux Yeah, I've never understood this. Most people took at least a few years of learning to be able to use Windows comfortably, but when they try Linux they not only expect to be able to learn it all in one day, they also expect it to be a drop-in replacement where everything is done in the same way as in Windows 😅
Show threadSwedneckJul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux i honestly feel like people just detest the idea of change and so they make an intentionally poor attempt at trying the new thing just so they can go "see! It's terrible!" and not have to think about it any further.
Show threadSebastian KrzyszkowiakJul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux I even see *developers* having that expectation when presented with complex systems.
Show threadLinkJul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux I've seen creators praise the Steam Deck's desktop for how simple it is and how refined the whole experience is using the hardware for gaming/productivity... then said they'd still prefer using the ROG Ally (from a software perspective) despite rambling about how buggy Windows and Armory Crate are most of the video, simply because it's what they're used to using their whole life.

Fair enough, people have preferences and I get + respect that, but the reasoning just doesn't compute for me.
Show threadJohn Wyatt 🐧Jul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux emacs and vim tutorials in a nutshell.
Show threadAlan TwigzJul 12, 2023

@gamingonlinux I do think the point of Linux being hampered by its very open, user-focused and custom nature is true, but it's not really well put forward.

Windows is the standard because folks use it at work, and they use it at work because Microsoft has huge enterprise contracts and marketing teams. That will never happen for Linux - even if folks use enterprise Red Hat at work, for example, they're not going to be instantly proficient with Arch at home

Show threadDakki ReadsJul 12, 2023

@Quisley @gamingonlinux As, like, the opposite of a computer guy (in the sense that I just want software to get the hell out of my way and let me do the thing I want to do)

Linux (Ubuntu Studio) has actually been really good at letting me do my thing once I got past a very short initial learning curve, and I feel a lot more confident I can fix things in Linux after a couple years of using it as my daily driver than I ever did after 20+ years on several flavors of Windows.

Show threadDakki ReadsJul 12, 2023
@Quisley @gamingonlinux I think what I want to get at is that there's a certain sense of "sunk cost" developing expertise as a user in Windows that people just don't want to give up on
Show threadAlan TwigzJul 12, 2023
@DakkiReads @gamingonlinux Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking - folks will spend an hour a day wasting time on a broken system forever rather than a few hours a week learning a new one for a year. The waste is already built into their day, people are busy, and learning things on your own entails feeling stupid a lot. I don't know how it works everywhere but my education gave me a deep aversion to feeling stupid
Show threadMatt MascarenhasJul 12, 2023

@gamingonlinux Yeah, without meaning to ruffle any feathers, I wonder if the rise in use of the term "UX" over the last few years has anything to do with this. Seems to me that immediacy is a thing that's presented as good UX?

Personally, I'd like more emphasis on software we can learn to use in a similar vein as musical instruments we can learn to play.

Show threadraphaelJul 12, 2023

@gamingonlinux also a very annoying manifestation of this:

looks at new thing
notes it works somewhat differently from old thing, so habits don’t transfer 1:1
‘new thing has bad accessibility!’

Show thread64kbJul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux it's not helped by every intro to a new web technology ever
Show threadberyJul 12, 2023
@gamingonlinux oh god, I notice that in myslef