On Wed, Apr 19, 2006 at 04:50:55PM -0400, Khepri wrote:
> Chad Perrin wrote:
>
> I'll never forget an AOL tech support person about 5 years ago asking
> *me* how to set up a server because he was "impressed" with my
> knowledge! Too funny.
I've had similar experiences. I laugh because the alternative is to
cry.
>
> > You're right, though: Microsoft support will never tell you RTFM.
> > Instead, they'll tell you it's user error and hang up, tell you how you
> > can spend yet more money to get no more help, or tell you that you'll
> > have to deal with the PC vendor instead -- who in turn will tell you
> > that's a Windows problem, not a Dell problem.
>
> Man, the truth of that is cracking me up!....Ok, ok....but I still
> think, well, at least the average Windows user is under the impression
> that "help" is a phone call away...:)
I can definitely agree with that. Perception is, unfortunately, the
real problem here: habitual Windows users have the perception that help
is a telephone call away with Windows, and they get the perception that
it can be very difficult to get help for Linux. The truth of the
matter, in my experience, is that with a very simple education in how to
ask useful questions that prompt useful answers, Linux help is far more
available and complete than Windows help.
I think part of the reason for the misperception of the availability of
Windows help is largely based in the fact that for Windows help you can
ask some tier one tech support flunky why your "internet went away", and
he or she will step through a series of scripted questions designed to
get some kind of useful diagnostic information from you. The Linux
community, by contrast, expects you to make the effort of actually
providing the information necessary to make your question useful to
those seeking to answer it, and frustration with people who don't do so
can lead to short, curt answers. This is where RTFM arises, as far as I
can tell.
The fact that, after answering all the tier one flunky's questions, you
usually get "power cycle your cable modem", "restart your computer",
"reinstall Windows", or "not our problem", while after providing useful
diagnostic information the Linux community tends to give a detailed
explanation of how to solve the problem, prevent it from happening
again, and build your own replacement for whatever broke in the first
place, in addition to a detailed comparative analysis of all the
replacement tools that already exist, is secondary to the fact that
saying "my internet broke" gets you a couple inches further with paid
tech support than with the Linux community (in the minds of the end user
newbies).
Then, of course, there's the self-styled experts who inflate their own
egos by denigrating others, as Steve pointed out -- which is more of a
problem that needs to be solved in the community, and less of a problem
of circumstance and bad luck.
>
> > I'm not saying that RTFM is always the "right" answer. I'm just saying
> > that these unfavorable comparisons to Microsoft and its ilk are usually
> > nothing but wishful thinking.
>
> Good point....Sometimes I get so into my line of thought I completewly
> overlook the obvious! LOL
>
> But, that's why I post stuff like this and make comments as to what I'm
> thinking to get responses so I can judge if I am actually looking at it
> in a proper perspective....
That's a damned fine approach. I use it from time to time myself. In
fact, I'm using a bit of that right now, in this very message. If I
don't get any responses telling me I'm wrong, I guess I'll adopt the
working assumption that I'm onto something, somewhere in there. It's
interactive Socratic autodidactism, I guess. It works, too. It takes a
dash of either humility or modesty to make it work most of the time,
though. I have none of the former, but a fair helping of the latter.
>
> I've had a problem with that approach other places with people accusing
> me of think I know everthing or some such nonsense when all I'm actually
> doing is fishing for comments so I can learn...:0
>
> Thanks!
I sympathize, and you're more than welcome.
-- Chad Perrin [ CCD CopyWrite | http://ccd.apotheon.org ] "Real ugliness is not harsh-looking syntax, but having to build programs out of the wrong concepts." - Paul Graham
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