... The question will appear, and no one answers it. Fix it so the damn search engines find the answer, then.
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I asked a question here about removing something from Mint. The answer was for Ubuntu, and from 2010. No answer on this forum.
The first search bought up the question, the questioner said he tried to write such and such a script. He got a detailed answer. A later user with no such knowledge asked the same question. It's been ignored apparently since 2011.
I can run almost all the software I've found. I have no problem with it except whether or not it's what I want, and that's personal. However, if you buy a book for beginners, all they do is try to tell you how to get to your email and FB accounts.
If you buy a more advanced book, it assumes you want to code. I don't want to code, I just want to maintain if I have to.
About books. I think I have almost every damn Photoshop book in one version or another. What I noticed is that a lot of them don't freaking assume! Some will start out explaining to the complete novice, then advance him through the finer points.
They don't assume he just wants to stick pictures on FB, or become a total graphic designer. This is technical writing at its best. It covers the whole program. I'm using it for an example as I have the books and they prove that style of writing can be done. I've looked through B&N in town - (the library is a joke unless you like romances) and have not found a book for any Linux yet with this type of format. I'm not buying any book unless I can look through the whole thing first.
I've found a lot of the websites wind up like XDA. Very good if you have some knowledge and want more - not so good if you are a total beginner. I am also not joining every site just to see how they answer. You should be able to get a tone from the site without having to join. Join to post is just fine.
You have several valid points here. One, really quick, is that Mint is an Ubuntu fork, which means that the Mint people took Ubuntu and 'fixed' it the way they thought it should be and there are enough people out there who prefer the fixed version. So oftentimes an answer for a Mint problem can be easily found in an Ubuntu answer for a similar (or identical) problem. To a limited extent, the same in regard to Debian, since Ubuntu (and therefore Mint) are based off Debian.
Having good search engine skills is an essential part of the computering experience. It's not limited to Ubuntu, or Linux... I have had quite a few problems over the years which only diligent searching, and many times serendipity, are the ways I could find a solution. There are also many problems I have identified where the only fix is one I invent myself. That is the way of the intermediate user.
And speaking of intermediate users, you are right-- *nix people often do not treat intermediates with the due respect they deserve. There are a numerous reasons for that, but the bottom line is that, with the exception of those sites dedicated to helping neophytes out (ex. Ubuntu Forums), the vast majority of *nix power users are programmers, who expect their forum members to have a certain level of knowledge or skill.
You have to know how to ask questions the 'right' way, which is to detail everything you have, what you have tried and the results of those. If you expect to be spoon-fed, then you will not get any answers out of them. Sometimes, you will find yourself answering your own thread. There are quite a few threads out there that I have created which are nothing more than me talking to myself about a problem until a troll comes along three years later to provide a fix for a problem I either gave up on or fixed in the thread already.
One huge difference between Open Source and Retail software development is that the Retail outfits (sometimes) hire people to translate the engineering into instructions that normal people can read. Add to that an industry of help literature to enable the average user to make the most of what they paid for. The non-Windows, Non-Apple side of the coin doesn't have that-- open source people often don't believe in making money by selling help books, it's a niche market, and those few who do can charge high prices due to lack of supply for that demand. There are too many options out there, too many variations on the theme; it's like trying to write a car repair manual for Chevy's and expecting the instructions for a Cavalier will somehow be the same for a Corvette.
Coders don't know English (for the most part, not even English-speaking coders... really, those guys need some editors), and they don't understand who their audience is, so their instructions are written either for other coders, or for simpletons.
