Linux Fault Threshold

[hard candy]

Made me laugh and cringe at the same time:

"The Linux Fault Threshold is the point in any conversation about Linux at which your interlocutor stops talking about how your problem might be solved under Linux and starts talking about how it isn't Linux's fault that your problem cannot be solved under Linux. Half the time, the LFT is reached because there is genuinely no solution (or no solution has been developed yet), while half the time, the LFT is reached because your apologist has floundered way out of his depth in offering to help you and is bull****ting far beyond his actual knowledge base. In either case, a conversation which has reached the LFT has precisely zero chance of ever generating useful advice for you; it is safe at this point to start calling the person offering the advice a ****ing moron, and basically take it from there. Here's an example taken from IRC logs to help you understand the concept.

<jsm> Why won't my ****ing Linux computer print?
<linuxbabe> what printer r u using?
<jsm> I don't know. It's a Hewlett Packard desktop inkjet number
<linuxbabe> hewlett r lamers. they dont open source drivers <------LFT closely approached!
<linuxbabe> but we reverse engineered them lol. check the web. or ask hewlett for linux suuport??<------ but avoided, he's still talking about the problem
<jsm> Thanks. I already did that. But I can't install the drivers on my ****ing computer. I've got a floppy disk from HP, but my floppy drive is a USB drive and Linux doesn't have ****ing USB support.
<linuxbabe> linux DOES have USB support!!!!!!
<jsm> yeh for ****ing infrared mice, and for about a thousand makes of webcam it does. Get real here. For my ****ing floppy disk drive, I am telling you through bitter experience it does not. Even if someone has written the drivers in the last week
<jsm> which I sincerely doubt, how the hell am I going to install them given that my floppy drive doesnt work?????
<jsm> this ought to be in the kernel. what good is a ****ing operating system that doesnt operate?
<linuxbabe> Imacs dont have floppy drives at all <----- useless point, but not LFT. All apologists make pointless jabs at other OSs
<linuxbabe> so you ought to be greateful that Linux does. drivers like that shouldn't be bundled in the kernel
<linuxbabe> makes it into ****ing M$ bloatware. bleh
<linuxbabe> download drivers from the web!!!! apt-get is your friend
<jsm> So everyone keeps telling me. Unfortunately the ****ing modem doesn't work under Linux either, and since the Linux installation destroyed Windows, that leaves me kind of ****ed.
<linuxbabe> Linux doesnt destroy windows
<jsm>mandrake installer does. It "resized" my Windows partition and now the ****er won't work
<linuxbabe> you shuold have defragmented. windows scatters data all over your hard drive so the installer cant just find a clean chunk to install into. it isn't linux fault <---- distinct signs of LFT being approached
<linuxbabe> that windoze disk management blows
<jsm> so why doesn't my ****ing modem work?
<linuxbabe> what computer hav u got
<jsm> A Sony Vaio PCG
<linuxbabe> that doesn't have a modem
<jsm> I assure you it ****ing does. I used to use it to check my email back in the days when Windows worked.
<linuxbabe> its got a winmodem. thats not a modem <----- nitpicking over technical terms is a sign of impending LFT
<jsm> what do you mean?
<linuxbabe> a winmodem isnt a proper modem. it just uses proprietary windoze apis. doesnt do the work of a modem at all.
<jsm> Very interesting. Now how do I get the ****er to work with Linux?
<linuxbabe> well the trouble is that micro$oft won't open up the drivers they just keep it proprietary and becos theyr a monopoly all the lameass manufacturers fall into line

LFT REACHED !!!!!

<jsm> So in other words, my ****ing modem is never going to work with Linux at all?
<linuxbabe> no no no. in the first place you never had a modem you had a winmodem. in the second place its M$ fault that the drivers are closed and you can go to jail for trying to reverse engineer them like this guy dimitri skylab and the DMCA. its nothing to do with linux that M$ fills the world with its proprietary crap
<jsm> But in terms of actually getting my computer to work with Linux, I get the impression that it won't?
<linuxbabe> M$ should have to open up the drivers have you read CatB? and vaio sucks because they won't open up their standards either.
<jsm> Congratulations on wasting half an hour of my life, you ****ing loser. And stop pretending to be a ****ing woman. Your advice is useless. You, and the other hundred members of the so called ****ing Linux community for which you stand, have broken my computer, wasted my time, patronised me senseless, revealed your lack of real knowledge, patronised me again and you *still* can't get something as simple as a ****ing laptop computer to ****ing work. Your so called free ****ing software, like your
<jsm> so called ****ing free advice, is still too ****ing expensive. I cannot believe that you have so little ****ing self-respect that in order to find the attention you clearly crave, you have to spend your life lying about the usability of a ****ing computer operating system, purely for the joy of creating problems which you can then pretend to solve. You are worse than a ****ing fireman who sets buildings on fire. I have had enough of your ****ing Munchausen-by-proxy version of tech support. Now get off
<jsm> this ****ing channel, hunt down someone who knows what they're ****ing doing and bring them here or I will never, repeat never, use your ****ing system ag ....

---DISCONNECT ---

That's basically what it's like. Don't ever, ever believe anyone who tells you that you can get technical support from "the community". Because "the community" with whom a computer journalist, website operator or Open Source loudmouth interacts, is not the same community that is open to you.
Crossing the Linux Fault Threshold

[XiaoKJ]

I'd cry over that...

[Parcival]

Well, in my experience the LFT has always something to do with hardware drivers. If every manufacturer made drivers for Linux, Linux would be unstoppable.

[mrBen]

Ah..... Adequacy.org. I remember them

I guessed while reading that that IRC conversation is quite old now - probably 2-3 years was my guesstimate. I was a bit out - logged in 2001.....

[DavidMD]

Hello, 'hard candy'.

Made me laugh and cringe at the same time....

I checked out the Linux neophyte's Web site (Adequacy.org).

One section begins, "I had decided a few months earlier to install Linux because it was cool...."

Aside: He also compares the cost of Linux to the cost of Windows, determining that Windows is "free," because it came preloaded on his computer. I do not need to rehash this misconception. (I felt much more like cringing than I did laughing.)

Linux advocates cannot use "Linux is cool" as a justification for installing or trying Linux. We need to demonstrate, with facts, the reasons and justifications for installing Linux.

I have seen several threads/discussions about Linux in which the Linux neophyte has installed Linux because she or he heard -- or was told -- how "cool" Linux is. The results are predicable, including trashing Windows installations to try to dual-boot Windows and Linux, or extensive problems with unrecognized hardware.

I am going to search the JustLinux forums to see if there is a thread of people stating why they started using Linux or why they use Linux (with the hope that it won't be full of the usual Microsoft bashing).

I am very curious about why people started using, or are using, Linux, especially people who have replaced Windows or a "classic" Mac OS with Linux. (I have a G4 Power Mac tower running Mac OS X, "Tiger," and I cannot see the justification in that case, unless the person is against all proprietary software.) I use Linux more than Windows or Mac OS X, although I am not using Linux right now, because of my decision to devote one Pentium-4 PC to Linux and another one to Windows -- and some hardware work that I must do.

I will stop rambling now, but I hope I have made my point.

Thanks!

Cordially,

David

[Parcival]

I am going to search the JustLinux forums to see if there is a thread of people stating why they started using Linux or why they use Linux (with the hope that it won't be full of the usual Microsoft bashing).

Happy reading: The main "why did you choose Linux?" thread

[EnigmaOne]

I am going to search the JustLinux forums to see if there is a thread of people stating why they started using Linux or why they use Linux (with the hope that it won't be full of the usual Microsoft bashing).

I use Linux because I'm cool.