If you've ever tried to ask for help on one of the many Linux mailing lists or newsgroups, you may have felt humiliated by some of the responses. It seems there are many "stupid questions" out there that can meet with intolerance by Linux cogniscenti. Perhaps there needs to be a Linux Newbie Primer for those who would seek help from newsgroups or mailing lists.
When you ask a question that someone considers inappropriate, you may get a response in a single word: "rtfm" (read the f__king manual). The trouble is, when you are a brand new Newbie, you are overwhelmed with manuals to read and you really don't know where to go for help.
The manuals you have with your distribution probably can be summarized this way:
In addition you should know about the "locate" command. When you're out of ideas, or even before you get any, you can find useful files by typing "locate filename". Linux will list the paths to all files matching that filename. This is useful for locating READMEs and similar information. Locate is part of the GNU file utilities package, so you installed it if you installed that package.
Perhaps most important is the tone of your post to the newsgroup or mailing list. Linux users are a hearty breed, and they expect you to be also. While most people who participate in the Linux help lists are magnanamous and forgiving, you shouldn't count on their graciousness. You really should only contact them after you've exhausted your own sources for research. Your attitude should be "I can do this myself, and I will, but I need a little help here." Linux is a very do-it-yourself sort of operating system, but everyone remembers what it was like to be a newbie. Most people will have compassion.
In your post you should list what you have attempted already and why that apparently has not worked. List the error messages you got. Share only relevant system configuration information. If you're talking about a video problem, share your video card and monitor information, your X server, your window manager, and so forth. Your hard drive partition table is probably irrelevant. You get the idea.
Please don't belabor the fact that you're a newbie. Don't waste bandwidth telling how you don't know Unix, can't figure out your problems, or basically whine about how Linux is so much harder than Windows 95. Most likely this attitude will meet with the recommendation that you go back to Windows 95 where you belong. Buck up and be patient. You're on a learning curve. Get used to it.
Post your question to the correct mailing list or newsgroup. If your question is specific to the Red Hat distribution of Linux, do not post to a Debian mailing list. If your question is a newbie question, post to the newbie mailing list. In fact, perhaps it would be smart to post all your questions to linux-newbie@vger.rutgers.edu for a while.
For a listing of mailing lists and newsgroups, and other support resources, check the following URLs:
The newsgroups are located primarily in the comp.os.linux hierarchy. There are the comp.os.linux.answers, *.setup, *.announce, *.advocacy, *.misc and other groups. I think many of these groups are better handled with specific mailing lists. One problem with newsgroups is that they are archived at various server locations which are searched by "bots" that add your email address to "spam" lists. Many people avoid usenet altogether because of this problem.
Because computer books cost so much nowadays, it's important that you chose your books carefully. It's easy to go overboard but a few books about Linux or Unix fundamentals are certainly in order. You can ask on the mailing lists for suggestions, but here are a few for me:
One thing you should probably understand is that Linux is not competing with other operating systems. Newbies often want to convert their Windows 95 friends, and that's not necessarily bad. But, it is often unrealistic.
Linux is Unix, and Unix isn't for everybody. Yes, it's extremely powerful and is definitely a power user's platform. You can strut proudly because you use Linux and all that stuff. But not everyone is built with the patience and technical curiosity to be a Linux user. Not everyone wants the amount of control Linux or any other Unix gives you over your computer. Many people would be just as happy to let Windows 95 or some other commercial platform configure their defaults for them and let that be that. They couldn't care less that Windows 95 is comparatively wasting their computer resources. And they'd probably croak if they had to compile their own kernel. It's probably all they can do to figure out how to use pkunzip.
This doesn't make your friends stupid or "lamers," particularly. They just have different priorities. While your newbie zeal is admirable, let experience season your judgement. Linux will attract whom Linux attracts.
Therefore, when you ask a question and you compare a Linux process with Windows 95, and when you get an answer that suggests you go back to Windows if Linux is too tough for you, don't take it personally. This is probably an old-fashioned way of keeping the genepool pure. If you are patient and perservering, you'll one day become a unix guru.
Copyright, David S. Jackson, 1997.