Linux Format forums

[martin_proffitt]

Why the internet is good :
It gave us Linux.

I've been using Mandrake/Mandriva for around five years and in all that time I must have gone through every form of problem that exists.

Most of the time I run a stable system, but inevitably from time to time something screws up.
All too often, when something goes wrong, we dive for firefox and google. "Someone has been through this before - they'll have posted somewhere about it" - and this is mostly true. However, in this lies a deeper problem. Sheer laziness.

I don't actually have the internet where I live in huddersfield. I can't afford it. When I get stuck on a problem, whether it is with linux itself, or whether it is a problem relating to PHP or C++ the first place I dive is for the documentation. Everything is covered in the documentation and if its not there, its because the answer is a logical one. Only in a few minor instances have I not been able to find the answer without documentation or logic.

The problem I really find about the internet is it takes away our will to learn. We google an answer, try it, it works, we forget what we did because someone else told us how to do it, so when the problem comes around again, we often can't remember how we fixed it so go back to google.

I have gained virtually all of my knowledge about Linux, programming, networking, etc. from trial and error. Most of the time, I find the solution reasonably quickly, in some cases faster than I ever would have googling for the answer. And when you do learn something by trial and error, you are more inclined to remember it. You type the wrong thing in as root, "oops I just lost the mysql data folder", you better remember so you never type that in again.

Now I am not saying "Don't use the internet" - not in the slightest, I just think that we place too much emphasis on the answers it provides and not enough on our own initiative.

There is a lot to be said for the all too often quoted "rtfm". Man and Info are quite definatly your friends! failing that, '/usr/share/doc' is also a good place to look. If its not there, try running the relative program from the command line with the '-h' or '--help' option. That can sometimes help.

I feel that the internet should only really be used when you have exhausted all other means. Yes, it can be frustrating at times, learning without being guided by someone else, but the end results are more than worth the extra effort you put in.
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Do Not Insult The Penguin!

[Rhakios]

So remind me, why is the internet bad?
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Bye, Rhakios

[bigjohn]

Because it gives geeks the idea that they can write as well as a "top notch" author.

whereas, said geeks, know one hell of a lot about how IT stuff works, but diddlysquat about how to string sentences together in a logical, readable/understandable manner (however helpful they may be - you should try asking a question at my LUG).

Living proof, being just about any "howto" at tldp. Nice consistant format, just badly written, lacking coherence, targetting articles etc at people with the same levels of technical knowledge as the author

Oooooo! now theres heresy. Criticism of something as worthy as tldp!
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"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away". Tom Waits

[TheDoctor]

[Rhakios]

[Marrea]

[TheDoctor]

[bigjohn]

[nelz]

[Rhakios]