 There is an understanding in the Linux community that arch users are snobbish Cultish and clannish I think is the words that you'd probably be able to find on the internet over, you know in places that describe arch user arch Linux users The same can be said about gentoo users. They are very enthusiastic members of the gentoo community and They're insular right they think gentoo is the best same with arch the arch users think arch is the best and Ubuntu users think Ubuntu is the best and mint users think mint is users in the best and if you if you Are outside of those communities and you say something against those distributions Obviously, you're an idiot but for whatever reason the arch and gentoo community seems to have the Stereotype of being unhelpful of being clannish like they don't welcome new members very easily to the clan and that is Definitely true, but I think that the problem is is that this mentality actually applies to the whole Linux community as a whole when they talk about Linux itself, so If you're a brand new Linux user or let's say you haven't quite made the jump yet Let's say you're a Windows user and you're thinking about jumping to Linux You're gonna hear things you're gonna hear the things that make it seem like the Linux community Isn't helpful towards noobs and it's sad to say that this is kind of true I got this idea on reddit because there's a subreddit called r slash Linux questions and it's one of the top Linux communities on reddit. They are For asking questions. That's literally what the subreddit is for is for people to get on there and ask their Linux questions And if you go on there, it will shock you to see how many times the answers are just Deplorably unhelpful. I mean there's read the effing manual. There's This is a noob question. We don't want to answer it. There's just flat-out ignoring noob questions completely and It's not just this one subreddit. It happens in every Linux subreddit and It happens even more in the more Clannish subreddits like suckless and arch those subreddits tend to very much be Anti-new user and probably for good reason You don't want new users to get right into the arts Linux subreddit and start asking you what is Linux? You know, how do I change directories and so like that's not the place for it But the way we respond to those questions no matter where they're asked is very important And it's not something that we do well as a community and the problem with that is is that we drive away new users If you haven't made the jump to Linux yet or if you are just starting out with Linux And you have a problem you have a question and it is definitely a noob question You know it's a noob question because you're a noob and You go to subreddit or you go to Twitter or you go to mastodon or you go to whatever and you ask this Noob question and you get shouted at because it's a noob question or you get ignored or you get derided because of it What are you gonna do? You're gonna go back to Windows At least most people would the only the people who stick on Linux or people who can push past that mentality of the Linux community and Find the answers on their own Not everybody's like that. Well, some people don't Google well, they don't they're not in the habit of going to Google and finding the answers themselves They're in the habit of raising their hand in class and getting the answer. That's how they do it that's how they've always learned and There's nothing wrong with that but in the Linux community when people ask questions that are considered noob The responses they get can be very disheartening because as a community we're not good at answering those questions because we think that everybody should look it up first and I know I'm guilty of this I know when I find someone who has a noob question. I tend to point them towards Google and googling it because And I try to do it in a you know a nice way But I do feel that new users have a better chance of sticking on Linux and being successful in their Linux journey if they get comfortable finding them the answers themselves. They'll learn it better that way and They'll also get more information that way, but the internet is a huge place. There's a ton of Misinformation out there. There are trolls everywhere telling them to run stupid commands in the terminal and That's not a great way for a lot of people to learn so I know like I said, I'm guilty of it and I think as a community we have to be better embracing our noobs We have to be able to when they have a question How do I get out of a directory in the terminal? Explain what how CD works, you know, how do I figure out how to move things in the terminal? How do I figure out how to install Arch Linux? How do I figure out how to burn an ice? So if I want to change to a different distribution because it's not the same as it is on like Windows or something I think they probably used of you know a Windows tool of some kind and You know They probably maybe they Google how to burn an ISO in Google and they come up with a command DD and that they also get these big red flag warning saying be cautious of how you use DD because you might race your disc or whatever they're gonna have to be confused and be worried and Like I said, we as a community need to embrace those people and help them along Not to ride them because they happen to be noobs and we don't do that We often very much to ride people who have what we consider stupid questions and that's not a Good thing. It's not a good thing if we want Linux to expand and to have more users It's not a good thing if we want to have a better reputation as a links community because honestly right now We don't have a very good reputation when it comes to embracing people who are new to the Ecosystem we just don't and it's not just arch and it's not just gentoo. It's all of us is no matter what district you have Especially if you embrace that district as being your team your family or whatever because We tend to get into these small and similar communities based on the distribution and software that we use and We don't enjoy having people come into those communities and ask stupid questions Even if really they're not stupid questions. They're just noob noob questions I think that we're all Linux noobs I don't care what distribution you're on every single one of us have questions that we don't know the answer to That's just the way it is. I know I don't know anything everything about Linux Not even close. I learned something new Every day about Linux and that's why I like Linux because I enjoy learning things new but I know I wouldn't be Nearly the Linux user I am if I hadn't found some people that are willing to help me and overlook the fact that I often have Stupid questions. So and I know every single one of you out there is exactly like me because None of us know all the answers. Nobody was born knowing What Linux is or how to use Linux know how to know everything about Linux so when you come across someone who has a noob question Remember back to when you were the noob and how you would have felt if you'd got an answer of read the fucking manual Thank you for watching. You can follow me on Twitter at the Linuxcast You can support me on patreon at patreon.com slash Linuxcast or hit the join button down there on YouTube before I go I'd like to take one to thank my current patrons Devon Marcus Magland Donnie Sven east coast web and Chris Mitchell American camp. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time