And Then There’s the Community

One thing that old and new Linux users might sometimes forget is the community. For newbies, it’s the fear of the unknown territory that might make it feel like something so difficult. That or they feel it’s an adventure they could take. All by themselves, that is. But if you think about it, venturing into the unknown world of Linux and the free and open source software movement is much better with like-minded people who want to experience these things. It could be one heck of an adventure or one long boring ride into the uncharted regions another planet.

Reaching out to ask for help could be intimidating because it might make you feel a bit insignificant. But what is life without other people being with you to experience things? As cliche as it may sound, no man is an island. For that matter, maybe you don’t necessarily have to be the type to broadcast to the entire world that you are a new Linux user. But just one or a few people with you in this makes the experience fun as you learn new commands. And who knows? The terminal might feel like a better place to deal with commands. Feeling like a wizard chanting a spell? Maybe that’s the thrill of the command line for some people. Others might be more of the type to find good things in new shiny packages — new applications that are useful, something more than they imagined.

Old Linux users might not feel as enthusiastic about the community before. Why? Because there are those who keep on conducting flame wars in community mailing lists. That or they’ve come to hate the “RTFM”/”RTM”-like replies to newbies. Or maybe they’ve gotten tired of reading newbie emails. Well, it might sound like those questions are being popped over and over and over again so I guess it’s hard to blame them for losing interest in those community mailing lists and forums. Oh and there’s also the problem with sexist remarks. Women sometimes have difficulties dealing with those issues. But there are times that it does turn women off from the community.

However, it is interesting to note that despite such issues that might be around not so new Linux users, there are friendships that do form among them. And it goes beyond the mailing list or forums. And sometimes those friendships lead to collaborations online and offline. There’s still discussions that do happen as time goes by. Which isn’t a bad thing and it could help as they continue to grow in terms of their personal development and their skills in using Linux and free and open source software.

I do hope that in the coming years, I’d see richer interactions among people in the community. I mean, I might not be as active in the local Linux community but I still have those friendships that I have developed over the years and it still keeps me interested in the technologies and the projects that are happening here. It’s just that I can’t help but hope for more so that the community will keep on growing.