I can't say I've ever ran into anyone like this. And the Arch wiki is so newbie friendly, I use it all the time and I don't even use Arch.
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Ive seen a lot of anti-gui sentiment but nothing I can remember enough to link to
This whole thread seems to be, primarily, people inventing strawmen and them a comment thread dogpiling them.
We have the "elitist Linux question answerer" and the "average user who is grandmother of 93 years that faints at the sight of terminal text" taking a lot of heat.
Many of stray shots at developers for having the audacity to provide access to the software that they made in their spare time without providing a full UX that compares to IOS.
The "fellow Linux users" who installed Linux 5 years ago, ran into a problem and declared Linux a failed experiment.
The OP isn't even a good meme. It's just ragebait.
The people who post these kind of things are not trying to improve the community. They're concern trolling.
Nobody is "preventing simplification". Anyone is more than welcome to fire up an IDE, clone a project and simplify whatever they feel like. That's how the open source software ecosystem works. If you don't like something then fix it.
You're not a customer, you're a community member. Making demands of other people isn't going to go over well, but it isn't because people are "elitist".
No, seriously.
This mindset of, “If you don’t like to read pages of documentation to figure out how to do the thing you’re wanting to do, then maybe Linux isn’t for you?” Or the “god. How dare you ask such a STUPID question. You’re using Linux wrong and it probably isn’t for you. Go back to baby’s first OS!” Is the biggest gripe I have about using Linux.
My gripe is "oh, you picked the wrong distro"
I just want my printer to work ffs
I'd put that one on the printer manufacturers. They love making them crappy.
Especially since the manpages are not written to always be comprehensible for end-users, but for developers and professionals. Some tools like tldr can help, however they rarely come preinstalled and aren't getting the attention they deserve.
So you ever tried support with windows? Go to some crappy community site with people who barely know what they are talking about and try some powershell and regedit crap.
Or go read conflicting Microsoft documentation that always seems to make man files look easy.
Its computers. You read stuff to deal with stuff, the OS is irrelevant.
I've been hearing about Linux elitists for the last 20 years, and I have yet to meet one. But what I do see is an endless wave of trolling and bad faith arguments about the supposed complexity of Linux.
They treat a wide array of developers, maintainers and enthusiasts as employees of Linux inc, and now they're grumpy because their imaginary ticket submitted to a nonexisting helpdesk is not being processed.
I have recieved much more help and support from the Linux community than from any other proprietary software helpdesk.
I've been hearing about Linux elitists for the last 20 years, and I have yet to meet one.
Post/browse a help forum, it doesn't take long to find them
YOU SHALL USE tty ON A 4K HDR SCREEN
I use Arch BTW!
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There was a long time when a casual user would have been better off on Windows, but I don't think that's true anymore, at least not on every distro.
Just as you can use Windows for years and never need Group Policy or Regedit, you can do Linux just the same without terminal.
This is the area where I feel Linux has come the farthest since I became interested in it.
Here's the thing that a lot of long-term linux users don't seem to understand: If it involves typing out a command in a terminal, or editing a configuration text file, 99% of casual users are already out. It doesn't matter if they just copy-paste a command or have change a single number in a text file, they literally don't even want to try, they consider that "too complicated".
And yet I had to edit a config.json file for a program to run on my friend's w11 pc yesterday, interesting...
I mean, you're right, he was too dumb to do it, but also that was on windows.
Users copying and pasting random command line code from the Internet should be fine
It is how every community support page works.
For windows. Poweshell that regedit it will fix everything.
Had to do this recently for a borked nvidia driver on windows. Welcome to computers!
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I just have never had a Linux system that didn't require some sort of terminal work to fix the occasional bug. A couple of updates ago Fedora left me with conflicting packages that needed the terminal to straighten out.
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The problem is that the road between creating a piece of software that does something well, and then creating simplification layers on top of it is typically much longer than just "edit a config file" and "here's a readme".
You need extra documentation, config gating and workflow, warnings, UI/UX work etc.
I know there are Linux elitists but kind of expecting that much extra work for what is still at it's core mostly volunteer software seems like it's own form of elitism.
The thing is, simple can mean two things, and they are quite often at odds with each other.
It can mean simple to understand, or simple to use.
For example, a piece of software that's just a binary, a config file and a man page describing the config file and the software's behavior is generally quite easy to understand. Like, you can fit the idea of the program entirely into your mind and "comprehend" it, though it may not be easy to use for a novice.
By contrast, a piece of software that contains additional layers for easy of use, like a GUI to edit options, may be simple to use, but not necessarily simple to understand. The additional layers add more complexity that does not contribute to core functionality of the program, it can become unclear what gets changed where when you click on buttons, the config file is likely not documented, human readable or editable, or it may even be a completely opaque configuration database (the registry), ... So making the software more simple to use, often makes it harder to comprehend.
I, and I think many other nerds, like software that is simple in the "comprehensible" sense, we want to be able to wrap our head around it completely and we don't mind putting in a little bit of effort to achieve that comprehension, whereas other people prefer to hit the ground running.
Absolutely agreed, I find it extremely telling that most people who say that have never personally contributed nor donated. Its ok to have expectations but its not ok to make demands from volunteers, thats why so many devs get burnt out and leave.
man this is a good linux meme, its funny and its real criticism of linux. why were all the linux memes shitty for a while there? why are they better now suddenly?
luckily people seem to be becoming better with this.
linux is also becoming better at being user friendly.
Hey, I installed Arch btw with Hyprland and I gotta say, the docs are super newbie-friendly. No problems on my end.
The Arch Wiki is so nice
I don’t want things to get simpler to the detriment of the power that Linux has. As long as there’s no regression who cares
To configure most suckless tools you need to... recompile them. The readme says:
Because dwm is customized through editing its source code, it's pointless to make binary packages of it. This keeps its userbase small and elitist. No novices asking stupid questions.
But if you are trying to compile suckless tools, you are already in too deep.
Those dudes are lost in the sauce. Nobody should be using big endian these days
Wow. Just wow. What a bunch of utter darlings. Just let them stew in their own idiocy.
Edit: To clarify, I mean the people who wrote this readme.
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The biggest barrier to widespread adoption is the portion of the toxic parts of the general community. You know who they are, you see them all the time. They exist across all distros, and they seem to go out of their way to make the experience as miserable as possible when new users are asking simple questions.
They often are some of the first people new users interact with when needing help transitioning over. They seek out those beginner questions to act superior, and just turn the average user off to the point they decide to never try it again.
Without strong moderation to reduce that dipshit commentary, the Linux community will always be working against mainstream adoption.
Documentation has gotten worse too. Veronica Explains discussed this issue in one of their videos. If you look at some good examples of documentation like the Commodore 64 manual, it explains concepts to an audience unfamiliar with computers in a way that’s easy to understand. Lots of modern software doesn’t have docs like this anymore. Then, on top of that, you have the condescending users in help forums.
Discovered Veronica recently... ❤
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But I've never met anyone like this. Do they exist?
They are literally in this thread here.
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Agreed. I wish moderators would ban those people from linux communities and more users would report their elitist behaviour. It's really annoying to ask a question and get belittled for having the audacity of being ignorant.
I understand these people lack power elsewhere in their lives and want to be powerful where they believe themselves to be experts, but it's a real pity they express it with a complete lack of empathy. If you don't want to help, don't say anything. Let somebody who does want to help nicely do the helping.
It's a sadly entrenched part of the culture. Literally 30 years ago the joke was "if you ask a question in a linux forum you get a bunch of shitheads screaming rtfm. But phrase it as a complaint about linux not doing something windows can, and they will fall over themselves with detailed instructions to prove you wrong"
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