The next time you ask why more people don't use Linux, remind yourself that for Linux users asking questions like "why doesn't my microphone work" will elicit responses like this
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LD_PRELOAD="ionizedgirl"replied to LD_PRELOAD="ionizedgirl" last edited by
@jalefkowit but like also I have no how to get anything done without a Linux shell lol
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to LD_PRELOAD="ionizedgirl" last edited by
@ionizedgirl I have heard people say pretty frequently that these days Windows is a great way to run Linux, which is one of those statements that would have made my head explode if I'd heard it in 1999
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@jalefkowit Or... You use whatever sound server comes with your distro and don't even think about it because it works in 99.9% of cases?
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@przmk "It works in 99.9% of cases" is not a helpful reply to someone whose entire problem is that it is not working.
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Allen "Hash Brownie" Stenhausreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
@jalefkowit These kinds of answers, & elitist non-answers, slowed my personal adoption of Linux. Once I met people willing to actually help and understand I'm not an idiot, just inexperienced, things got so much better for me.
This is also the reason why although my knowledge is limited compared to many on Fedi, I'm glad to share it with newbies. I WANT more people on Linux, but that won't happen if we don't treat newcomers as welcome. That includes newcomers who don't want to touch a command line.
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Allen "Hash Brownie" Stenhaus last edited by
@allenstenhaus In defense of this person, I think they are genuinely trying to be helpful. They just don't understand how dumping this much technical detail on someone comes across.
Linux enthusiasts tend to be tech enthusiasts, and tech enthusiasts are not famous for their communication skills
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
Now people are coming into my mentions to tell me that Windows customer support is also bad. I need to get a bunch of buttons printed up that say "congratulations on missing the point"
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multioculatereplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
@jalefkowit @allenstenhaus hi! I am in fact the person being quote-tooted above, and yes, I saw this and thought "wow, that sounds exactly like the thing that bit me on my laptop last year! Better drop a breadcrumb so OP doesn't have to waste the week I spent trying to fix the wrong piece of software." In the spirit of learning, what does a helpful breadcrumb for "there are 3 common alternate pieces of software for this and 2 of them are fighting because both are installed" look like for this?
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to multioculate last edited by
@multioculate @allenstenhaus Hey. I obscured your handle because I didn't want people to pile on you. I wasn't trying to call you out personally.
My main suggestion would be that stuff like this has to work like climbing a ladder. You start at the lowest available rung and work your way up from there.
So if it were me, I wouldn't have jumped straight into the technical description. I would have started with something like "sounds like a problem I had when I accidentally had two different audio daemons running. Have you been tinkering with different daemons? If so, let me know and I can give you more detail." Then go from there.
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Xandra Granade 🏳️⚧️replied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
@jalefkowit I mean, that also can read as an example of context collapse? mcc is a quite advanced user, and is well-known as such, after all.
A reply to a specific person being public need not mean that the audience is intended to be universal.
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Xandra Granade 🏳️⚧️ last edited by
@xgranade That's fair, but part of my point was that even advanced users don't like having to deal with stuff at this level. I'm a fairly advanced Linux user compared to the median human being, and I know I sure don't. When I have a problem and a search turns up forum posts that sound like this, my heart sinks.
So the response is part of the problem, but not all of it. The rest is the part that just makes me nod my head sadly when people I respect tell me "I just gave up and bought a Mac."
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@jalefkowit I like how people try to help other people. They may not have the communication skills of a pro, but they were not rude, not condescending.. don't call them abnormal.
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@zjuul Who called anyone abnormal?
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@jalefkowit I have not used Linux on the desktop in 20 years, but back then the audio subsystem (“advanced” my ass) and the crappy tools for playing mp3s were two of my top reasons for leaving with prejudice
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@lkanies It's mostly better these days. But when it isn't, oof