Steve Litt via Talk wrote on 2026-05-20 22:21:
attract people who probably won't use Linux anyway, and if they tried, are unwilling to edit a file or use Google.
This thread reminds me of a recent one on another list (which Steve participated in): a guy wanted to buy a laptop, install Mint, and give it to someone with zero Unix experience. His question to the list was, what books should he include: * Sed & AWK? * Vi & Vim? * Emacs? * Korn shell scripting? * ... Plus:
I'm afraid I am going to insist that she learn Vim.
So, turns out the recipient was not nerdy in the slightest. Saw a university semester's reading list, an insistence on learning some inscrutable text editor, and declined the new Linux laptop entirely. What a waste. She could have been a happy Linux user, maybe passing along that info when the topic came up to her knitting group, bowling league, whatever. But now she probably thinks Linux requires a whole lot of work just to do basic stuff. The opportunity for her as a new user is lost forever. Because someone insisted they go full nerd just to check email, Facebook, etc. What a wasted opportunity. This elitist attitude is worse than useless, it's actively detrimental.