d-RLY?

I mean 4Chan was possibly able to convince at least some amount of people that iOS 7 update somehow made their iPhone gain water resistance that would trip a hardware “smart switch” built into the phones. Just a numbers game that at least a small amount of people would believe something long enough to not really think about. Though the same can also be applied to convincing folks that other folks were dumb enough to be tricked. Which is still the same result. ¯\_ (ツ) _/¯

I will check it out, even if they push the subscription it still may be good to know about. Not like it comes up often, but some of my co-workers that are in school for CS might find it useful for extra practice.

Currently I have a Pi that I really only use for messing with Linux stuff and some of the purpose built alt-OSes (like media center stuff). So I have a safe environment that doesn’t matter if I brick the OS. Which might be a good option for lots of folks (even though it still lacks the guided tutorials that we have been talking about). Would be great if the Pi folks could create something on there for active learning Terminal.

Also at the lower end of the spectrum, I feel like maybe there’s a need for sort of a basic tutorial program for the kind of people who are not computer people to learn the absolute basics. I feel like back in the 90s I encountered a few introduction-to-windows sort of programs that would walk you through “this is your start menu,” “here’s what click/double-check/right click/etc” means," “here’s how you turn your computer off” kind of stuff.

I actually agree completely with that. I still remember the “how to use your Mac” intro floppy disks that my uncle still had mixed in with other program disks when I got his old Macintosh SE (dual floppy and no hard drive). It started with stuff like little “games” for how to use the mouse, Trash Bin, and other super basic things for GUI (since the concept was new at that time). My jump into Windows was easier because of that. Though the jump to Windows was its own issue since the family PC we got second-hand was still on 3.11 in 1998 and I was having to use 95 for a keyboarding class in middle school. But it was kind of interesting to have experienced (though not so much at the time as I couldn’t just do things like my friends would talk about on their 95/98 PCs). But even 95 did put effort into a tutorial that was helpful.

Windows these days doesn’t really have a tutorial for things (though Windows 8 did have a pretty okay one). Everything on 10 and 11 just feels like dark patterns in tricking you into shit Microsoft wants, and not a “how to” for even what is going on with the Start Menu. Just get an update and shit is just completely different (mostly with 11’s new jarring layout change).

And I’m slowly piecing some of it together, googling things as I go, and that’s a fine way to learn things, but it is slow and I wish there was a better way to power through learning some of this stuff without needing to go take a whole actual course on it. I think my ideal would be sort of a Duolingo-type app for terminal commands.

I am kind of shocked there isn’t already something like that. Even a lot of web forums these days have a “getting you started” tutorial that walks you through making dummy replies to messages from the bot. And create a dummy post that will be only created virtually while working with the bot. It would be great if the distros that try to be the easiest for new users to have a “introduction to terminal” that can safely show the most likely needed stuff. Like the normal stuff like ls, cp, copy, move, makedir, etc. Along with updating and installing stuff. There are lots of easy search results for these things, but a lot of people learn better hands-on (and especially if they know they won’t be able to just break shit if done wrong).

This is a hardware example (but still applies to the hands-on learning). I personally hate it when I am forced to learn how to fix stuff like iPhone hardware only on actual peoples’ devices. As it makes the pressure so much worse, and know that I might lead to the person not having their phone even longer with so much daily life needing them all the time. Apple does have step-by-step guides and video examples. But actually going through the motions is very different than the “perfect” stuff shown that make it seem easier.

Same can be with the difference in like driving a car in a sim and the class part vs how physical stuff like g-forces and actually feeling a hydroplane. You learn important things in the sim and in the class part of getting your learners permit, but then get a chance to drive with a teacher.

It seems that PC use and basic understanding has regressed dramatically over the past decade due to smart phones/tablets. So the starting point for a shocking amount of users is not good even for Windows (all the new PC gamers coming from only knowing consoles are badly needing to understand how to keep an eye on their drives filling up and to actually use the second drives). So it would be beyond great for Linux adoption efforts to focus on having hands-on “games” that range from basically treating it like the user is back in the early 90s (or the 80s for Apple’s first jump to having a GUI), and for folks that are already aware of the stuff that a complete new to computers folks don’t know.

Average Windows advice for basically every “Please help!” posts: “Just run DISM/SFC” marked as “solved”

I work on Windows computers for people, and do run both commands as just general flow. But I was so fucking excited recently to finally run into an issue that those commands actually fixed something (or at least a couple of the noticeable issues). Was so shocked that I had to tell all my direct co-workers.

But basically all other times I have ran them for real problems, I can’t remember any instance where they worked. For all the videos or guides with titles like “How to fix all Windows PCs”, you would think that they are the only solution.

The only frustrating thing with Linux communities/guides I tend to run into (especially when I had zero experience), are steps that get left out. Not out of malice, but because users that are much more experienced leave out things that are assumed to be already understood. Of course I don’t have a specific example off-hand since I already have some understanding at this point. Which kind of shows how easy it is to take certain things as “obvious.” Outside of that, the answers/guides do normally be good and friendly.

True, especially the part about your mom and others that had to use PCs in the 90s and 80s. I suck with a lot of CMD/PowerShell/Terminal stuff and get really in my head about whatever I am doing. Though a lot of it is due to things like switches and formatting order. Can be very very frustrating if there are a lot of them and having to constantly look at what they mean since they aren’t just regular words (which would obviously make the amount of typing get out of hand). The other main issue for me is dealing with moving or copying things around. GUI is much easier to get due to being able to see it in the same way I would move/copy things IRL. Especially frustrating if using USB drives, since they don’t just auto-mount/assign a letter if only using something without a DE. That part is (for me) a headache to have to deal with since the same OS will just do that if a DE is used. But also not something I do every day (or very often as I mostly use Linux when messing with my Pi).

But your core point of just doing it is very true. The reason that folks in offices in the 90s and 80s were able to get used to it was because they had to, and that there was a reason to at least know the things to do what they needed. They didn’t have to get bogged down with all of it (or even need most commands). So it would be best to focus on the things that are needed to get daily things done. Then it makes a lot of other bits easier to handle later on. And a lot of common things can be printed/written on cheat sheets or getting stickers with common commands to put on the side of the case or stuck to a desk in easily glanced at locations.