Schwweeeeeeeeet. zonker writes:
<...> The Linux community is, unfortunately, saddled with a reputation for being populated nearly exclusively with arrogant elitists who enjoy mocking noobs and generally being asses to people who know less than they do. The "Ubuntard" response to this author simply reinforces this attitude.
Worse yet, instead of helping to correct the situation they've put a writer or journalist on the defensive and made it entirely likely that the author will either stop writing about Linux and FOSS out of fear of getting it wrong again, or ensured that they now have a negative attitude about Linux which is unlikely to benefit the community at large should they choose to cover Linux again.
We should be better than this.
Not for a minute am I suggesting that the article go uncorrected. By all means, drop the author a note or leave a comment that gently corrects the errors. For added bonus points, offer to help spot-check the next piece they care to write, or point them in the way of some better resources.
I give the original author credit for a few things:
They actually sign their name to the things they write. In my book, you lose several thousand points of credibility unless you're willing to use your name when writing, unless you have genuine reasons for not doing so. (i.e., someone living in an oppressive regime that fears reprisal for political commentary -- not someone taking the piss out of named tech authors online.)
They were actually trying to be informative. OK, minus many points for missing the mark, but they tried.
They have enthusiasm for the command line. Getting some CLI stuff wrong doesn't irk me half as much as the "OMG, not the CLI!!" pieces that pop up so often about how Linux is unsuitable because you might need to touch the shell once in a great while.
That's material that can be worked with. Yes, the original article was flawed. But if approached correctly, many of the writers who want to cover Linux can be helped to get it right. And what we want, at least what I want, is more people spreading the word about Linux. The odds of the humiliation approach being effective are zero. ]<...>
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