Sooo there’s free software (“Everyone should be able to write open source software!”) and there’s open source software (people programming their own computers for their own communities). Ideally, Neima should be able to program her computer to help her kids do their homework or for their sports club. So there’s open source software that’s written for the developers community, and there’s open source software that’s written for the GNOME community, which is polished and truly a delightful experience for new users: if for example you installed Linux Mint with Cinnamon, you’d connect to the wifi and probably be immediately greeted with a notification telling you that your printer has been added and is ready to go.
I’m not saying that Linux users should learn programming, especially if they don’t know about e.g. GNU Guix, Skribe/Skribilo/Haunt, or SICP (that’s directly referenced by the Haunt info pages – I promise you, starting a blog as an English speaker with a Skribe implementation and reading SICP once you get comfortable enough could get you started in months); but that of course, learning any field on such a platform as Stack Overflow would provide an absolutely stupid experience, whereas the ideal learning medium is books.
It isn’t enough for Google to insert far-right suggestions in YouTube shorts; they’ve deliberately sabotaged features in their search engine to get us to generate more ads, and Google Scholar results are, by the way, the bottom of the barrel too. Compare queries results to “sex work” or “borderline disorder transgender” with those of HAL and wonder why there’s a public distrust in science. More broadly, Google hinders our relationship to information, and we’re both trading it for a far-right agenda.
The same is just as true for LaTeX: it’s a great, intuitive language, provided that you read some good introduction on the topic. As a matter of fact, Maïeul Rouquette’s French-speaking book is available for free on HAL.
I’m more and more fed up as I write that and I’m pretty sure it shows. You may totally use open source software, meant for the non-technical community of a graphical library, desktop environment, Linux distribution, and so forth. But if you really wanted to “learn Linux”, please install any distro you’re comfortable with and read some good book on whatever topic you want to work on.
Speaking personal experience hence extremely biased.
Books ain’t worth shit by them selves. There is no better resource than experience. I learned programming and other stuff just by trying and the googling and reading up on the problem.
Books are only as good as they are searchable and can be used as a reasource to solve problems (and I’m not talking about literature in general, I love reading, just not profession related stuff).
TL; DR
I strongly disagree. Nothing tops just tinkering and figuring things out practically. My whole career is based on my ability to learn and solve IT problems and google is still the best tool for that.Hi, it may depend on the background, but personally I’ve been stuck on problems for months, only to solve them by spending 2 hours reading a book. I’m talking about basic self-taught tools like Git, your first programming language, and so on – Microsoft and Google build and leverage platforms to keep specific demographics stuck for years, and to some extent, to kill them.
I’m not talking about solving problems on a complex stack with tools that you already know, but rather about learning to program the output of a Skribe document as a social media-addict 4chan user. We’re not even talking about Makefiles here, but about hundreds of thousands of people actually giving a hand to free software development, instead of trying to change the world in free form fields.
The same is just as true for LaTeX: it’s a great, intuitive language
Curious
troffnoisesHi there, Océane!
Firstly, I find the definition of free software as “Everyone should be able to write open source software!” quite problematic. It seems like if it were interchangeable with open source software, or at least somewhat equivalent. However, free/libre software and open source software are very distinct concepts:
- Free software emphasizes ethical principles, ensuring actual people have freedom to use, study, modify, and share software. Having access to the source code is important to do that, but that’s not the main point.
- Open source software focuses on practical benefits like collaboration and transparency, without raising ethical concerns.
Your statement conflates these two ideas, which could confuse people about the philosophical differences between both movements.
Secondly, I think the comparison between software “written for developers” and software “written for the GNOME community” oversimplifies the diverse motivations behind projects. While GNOME aims to provide a polished experience, many other projects, like KDE or Linux Mint with Cinnamon, also cater to non-technical users with user-friendly designs. GNOME’s approach isn’t unique in prioritizing ease of use.
Additionally, focusing on specific examples like Linux Mint’s printer notifications doesn’t address the broader landscape of user experiences across distributions and desktop environments… It’s only one example of something that works well.
Your post argues that platforms like Stack Overflow provide a “stupid experience” for learning, advocating instead for books. While books are excellent for foundational knowledge, dismissing online resources is, I think, short-sighted. Stack Overflow, forums, and community wikis are invaluable for solving real-world problems and learning practical skills, especially when combined with books. The problem is perhaps more how to use this kind of resources efficiently and not only copy code one doesn’t understand.
Additionally, the mention of tools like GNU Guix, Skribilo, and Haunt without context might overwhelm newcomers. While these tools are powerful, recommending them without explanation of their benefits or practical examples seems not very accessible.
The critique of Google’s algorithms promoting a “far-right agenda” lacks nuance. While it’s true that Google’s algorithms have biases, the argument oversimplifies a complex issue involving corporate incentives, algorithmic design, and user behavior too. Similarly, the statement about LaTeX being “intuitive” but requiring a good book overlooks the steep learning curve many users experience, even with resources. LaTeX’s complexity lies not just in learning its syntax but also in troubleshooting issues, configuring packages, and navigating its ecosystem. It’s important to acknowledge these challenges rather than dismiss them.
Finally, the suggestion that learners should “install any distro” and read books is well-meaning but overly broad. Books are good for foundational knowledge, but most people need practice and repetition while solving real-life problems to acquire competences. Encouraging curiosity and providing a variety of resources tailored to different learning styles would be a more inclusive approach.
Your post touches on important topics, but a more balanced view would celebrate the diversity of learning tools, acknowledge the complexity of issues like algorithmic bias and relation to people’s behavior, and emphasize the variety of approaches to free software development. By doing so, I think it can foster a more welcoming and informed community for both technical and non-technical users.
Hi, this is an excellent answer.
I didn’t mean to dismiss online resources, but to highlight the continuous entrepreneurship in dismissing foundational knowledge. My post was honestly, rather bad for the reasons mentioned a few minutes ago, but the sentence “Linux is only free if your time has no value” erases the pleasure of reading books and getting new skills. It literally means that free and open source software can’t be more useful than whatever Google and Microsoft are developing, which doesn’t even include passwords managers.
Secondly, the difference you make between free and open source software are very interesting but to my understanding, it may boil down to the freedom 0 : free software is made for everyone, whereas open source software is made for specialized communities. Because most people don’t even write simple software, and I’m not talking about enterprise-level complexity here, most open source software is written for other developers. I’ve observed thousands of anonymous messages which coincidentally blurred the difference between free software and open source software by e.g. promoting the sway window manager that we know and love. On 4chan at least, calling people to hurt themselves has become an acronym (to whomever reads this, please don’t hurt yourself).
I’m not sure my own definition of free vs. open source software is the right one, but I know the actual difference is leveraged to kill people – comrades even.
And finally, I agree about everything else. I didn’t properly develop about GNU software because I was trying to leave my screen.
Decent write-up, but I don’t really see what this has to do with Google?
Hi, because there are messages on 4chan claiming that “Linux is only free if your time has no value.”
Thank you for the nice message, but to be honest, I regret posting it. I should’ve put more care into the style – anyway, there have been daily persistent anti-free software messages on 4chan for more than a decade, leading me to think about Olgina-style contractual workers. Some patterns seem to (1) defend Google, (2) put users back into depression, (3) promote the confusion between libre software and open source software, (4) shatter the EU and US IT work forces over demographic traits, through anti-LGBTQIA+, racist, misogynistic, antisemitic messages.
Some of these pattern seem to match known Kremlin strategies, others defend the interests of Microsoft and Google so well, matching other patterns I’ve observed with Android, YouTube, and Windows/Office 365 development, that I’m starting to collect evidence in Denote. I need to sort out coincidences, to account for the fact that many orgs may actually post anonymously on 4chan (including Nazis and orgs false-flagging as Nazis) but that’s one hell of a lot of coincidences.
nice list of resources, although way over my head as i am not a developer, nor do i plan to become one. but i do like learning stuff, and agree that modern google for finding relevant VALUABLE information is seriously lacking and annoying. i will be bookmarking nostarch for sure.
Thank you, a tip for finding valuable resources is to add the best tools to your query, e.g. “org emacs para method”.
You may lookup specialized jargon on Wikipedia, and then merely append them to your query.
