Kushan

“Why should people want to play the games they want to play” is the weirdest argument to take.

It’s not like Linux is 1:1 compatible with everything on windows. Maybe you play a game with kernel anticheat, you don’t have a choice in the matter. There’s no reason to just be a dick about it.

This meme isn’t asking people to learn anything, it’s just shitting on windows users.

To this day I still feel superior for knowing how to use the T9 when everyone else was mashing buttons like plebs.

Everyone needs to watch BoJack. Everyone needs that trauma in their life.

Most developers are writing for developers who have approximately the same skill level and knowledge

I think you’re correct about this, but I also think that’s part of the problem.

On the one hand you can have technical tutorials for technical people, but to your point assuming the audience has the same skill level and knowledge is actually a mistake - no two people share the same same life, so while it’s reasonable to assume a certain level of knowledge, you still need to consider that there may be gaps - small gaps but gaps all the same and that it’s worth being explicit about things to avoid ambiguity. A common pitfall I see in a lot of tutorials or guides is not being explicit about file paths (“just add this to the config folder” - which folder? Where?), or not correctly steering the user towards the relevant documentation about configuration values while still expecting them to insert some config file specific to their system, stuff like that.

The other end of the spectrum - the beginner, to your point might not be the target audience but a lot of people don’t realise that those folks exist. The absolute classic example I see of this is Linux for the Everyman - Lemmy is very big on promoting Linux and moving folks away from Windows/MacOS but there’s a bit of a disconnect because a lot of tutorials exist that base level of knowledge that a complete beginner doesn’t have. So they’re both not the target audience but expected to learn that stuff - and of course it doesn’t work and they stick to what they do know.

All this is to say, writing tutorials is a skill in itself and part of that skill is knowing who your target audience really is and knowing where your knowledge is his experience from working at something for so long or a basic level of understanding you expect a user to have.

I don’t think it’s about bringing rust enthusiasts to C, it’s about the fastest way to bring more safety to the entire ecosystem.

I’m not convinced it’s possible with just annotations, mind.

You know exactly what I’m referring to

Fuck Dyson. He promoted Brexit and then moved his HQ out of the UK when it was clear Brexit was a huge mistake, then got all pissy when people pointed out he was a huge hypocrite.

Yeah this sucks but honestly it never really worked well for me, ebooks are horribly underserved in the media world.

There’s no cad somewhere on this planet with good UX.

Absolutely, when you look at what Linux does get used for and where it’s dominant, there’s shit loads of money getting poured into it.

I’m not complaining about GIMP, I’m complaining about the attitudes people have towards potential users of free software.

Linux is getting more popular because corporations like valve have put the effort into refining the user experience. I’m not just talking about a pretty UI either, I’m taking things like proton that makes playing games on Linux as easy as playing on windows.

I’m not saying there aren’t people out there that demand free labour from volunteers - of course there are; I maintain and have contributed to a few open source projects myself so I know all too well what that’s like.

However, I would say those folks are a very small (albeit vocal and annoying) minority. The vast, vast majority of users simply dismiss Linux/GIMP/Whatever because it’s not suitable for them. They don’t go screaming into GitHub demanding features, they don’t post on Lemmy that the software sucks or otherwise create a fuss, they just gravitate towards the stuff that works for them (usually something proprietary) with the least friction.

Yeah you’re right, it’s the users that are at fault.

I think your response is unintentionally proving my point lol

Yup and honestly the hostility those users get when mentioning it is the same reason Linux doesn’t get more traction in the mainstream.

When a lot of users expect software to work in a particular way and it doesn’t, you change the software - if you insult, belittle or otherwise expect the user to change their working habits then you’re going to have a bad time and be all shocked Pikachu when the user doesn’t use the software.

Apple is (was lol) the most valuable company on the planet because they understood that the user experience is the absolute most important thing. They are the textbook example of vendor lock in and yet people flock to them because “it just works”.

Docker is a great example because podman basically is a drop in replacement.

How? Isn’t that what’s being discussed here, that too make bitmap shapes there isn’t a dedicated tool for it, instead you have to do multi-step workarounds.

Maybe? The person I was responding to was making a direct comparison that GIMP is bitmap only and insinuated that shapes are only vectors.