But
like so many people who have transitioned from Windows to Linux I have
come to view geeks as a bizarre sub-species of computer users who take a
perverse pleasure in exerting their superiority over NEWBS (I was a newb too)
Making
the shift from Windows to Linux is neither massively difficult, nor is
it entirely easy. It's a bit of both, but a lot of the information
online is biased, or badly presented, or created by geeks who are
sometimes making things harder than they need to be.
Possibly
some computer geeks place a value on themselves that partly stems from
being the only ones who understand the technology, so making them
gatekeeper tech gods. Which they get a buzz out of.
Unfortunately
this tends to mean that rather than making things easier for newbs by
giving them simple instructions, they often give out incomprehensible
instructions like "Just enter this simple command in Terminal". Their
condescending tone of "this is all really easy" is infuriating and one
of the main reasons so many newbs give up.
Geeks
seem to be unwilling to accept that about 90% of people using computers
are not other geeks, but regular people who want to have most, or even
everything they do accessible through buttons and menus that they can
click on.
Personally
I like to do everything on my PC using my mouse, and am about as anti
keyboard command as it's possible to be. The very word "type" totally
turns me off. "Copy & paste" I can do when necessary, but not "type"
What I actually want to see are the words "click on".
Life
often plays out in strange ways, and I have brain damage to the left
hemisphere of my brain, so am very right brain dominant, but I still use
computers anyway, and even sometimes seem to end up trying to explain
computer stuff to other non-geeks who just want some basic
instructions.
My
perspective from being a right brain computer user is a bit different
to most of the people who are usually commentating on this stuff, so I
imagine any actual geeks who see my posts might view me as a clueless
idiot. Which I sort of am.
During
the process of transitioning from Windows 7 (Yes, I was still using Win
7 up until 2024) to Linux Mint, it struck me that a lot of the
information online is confusing rather than helpful, and I wish I could
have read (Yes READ, not viewed endless badly done videos) web-pages
that explained things in a way that made sense to me.
Now
I want to leave some notes for my friends who at some point will be
wanting to escape the clutches of Microsoft. Windows 11 is likely to be
the final straw for a lot of people with it's obvious and intrusive
spyware, so the end of Windows for non sheeple is looming close on the
horizon.
Linux
is the only real option for anyone who wants to continue using a
computer without selling their soul to the deep state. (Yes, Apple &
Google are spying too)
As
I've found from sticking with Windows 7 and refusing to use Windows 8
or Windows 10, it is possible to soldier on for years with an
unsupported operating system.
But
installing Windows 7 on more modern hardware is a pig of a job, mainly
because sorting out drivers can be really tricky, and there are ever
increasing problems with software no longer working properly.
Linux
is the future and I think everyone who wants to use a computer with
some degree of privacy is going to have to get the hang of it. So that's why I do a few Linux posts attempting to clarify things.