• Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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    5 days ago

    That’s only true for a time. After you stop dealing with Windows for enough years, you just forget the bullshit and you become almost as clueless as the guy asking for help. You’re really good at Linux though. So when they ask for help you are all like:

    But with a less annoying and more kidnapper vibe where you’re withholding your valuable help till the bastard pays ransom. “You want help? Switch to Linux.” You don’t care if they don’t.

    • Ajen@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Just knowing how to use Google/ddg/etc to search for a solution to your problem makes you better at troubleshooting than most people. Spending 30 seconds to find a relevant link can make you seem like a genius to a lot of people.

      • somenonewho@feddit.org
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        5 days ago

        Seriously. I work in IT (mostly Linux) but whatever OS 90% of the Job is knowing how to properly phrase problems for Google and then you just need to know how/where to apply solutions.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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        5 days ago

        I used to work with supporting the general public with computer usage. It was pretty much a nightmare.

        I basically decided that, were I ever to become a benevolent dictator, the words “It just says ‘error’”, barring the rare exception where “error” and “ok” were the only things on screen…would result in immediate revocation of citizenship and deportation to wherever a dart landed on the map. If they were really nice, we’d let them throw the dart, or designate a champion to throw the dart for them.

        This could work out really well for them! Either way, support staff wouldn’t have to put up with it from that individual anymore.

        (EDIT: No, the middle of the Atacama / Sahara Desert, the poles, R’lyeh, nor the ocean, would be valid. I said benevolent.)

        …Yeah I’m still working with a mental health professional untangling what that job did to me. Lol

      • WFH@lemm.ee
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        5 days ago

        Unless most “relevant” answers point to a Microsoft help forum with shit answers.

        I have to use windows for work and I hate this bullshit.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          I was going to make a joke saying “What, you don’t appreciate Andre Da Costa telling you to reboot your computer?” but tbh the reason I do remember him is because he often had actual solutions.

          Crazy that out of the thousands of Microsoft MVPs, there was exactly one that knew how to make your Windows shit work, and now he’s no longer affiliated with Microsoft either.

    • clif@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Yep. Haven’t used windows besides poking at other people’s machines and trying to figure out wtf is going on in about 20 years.

      I’m just as clueless as you bud, but I’ve got a bootable Linux drive I can plug in. Come on, you know you wanna… It’ll be great, you’ll love it. It’s free

    • uniquethrowagay@feddit.org
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      5 days ago

      I’ve been on Linux exclusively for over 5 years now. I’m starting to struggle with some Windows stuff that I just forgot how to do. But also I’m still shit at Linux. It just works so well that I never really had to learn what’s under the hood.

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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      5 days ago

      I think another part of this is that you can do a little sleuthing in Linux and generally figure out what’s causing an issue because the error messages are generally helpful!

      In Linux, running a buggy / non-starting app in terminal will usually spit out something understandable. I think once we figure this out it spoils us a little.

      Windows on the other hand, with anything that actually requires intervention, seems to go out of its way to be obtuse and goes all “contact your system administrator” about it. You spend more time trying to look up and cipher their “error codes” and dealing with unhelpful “support” than figuring the problem. (Which usually involves “nuke and pave a driver” anyway. Lol)

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Maybe for some, but even if you have to keep it up because your work it relatives demand it, Windows ecosystem is essentially impossible to debug when it hits issues and you just have to take guesses as to why the obscure bad behavior is happening.

      Windows is better at not needing to be fixed or the first place by self healing, whereas with Linux distributions you have to know how to fix those issues, but once it goes beyond easy to fix issues, Linux is reparable but windows isn’t.

      If it isn’t blatantly obvious, it didn’t fix itself, and SFC didn’t fix it, then they always say reinstall…

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      You can learn Windows it just takes a little effort. If you spend some time you will end up knowing half the tricks in the book.

      • swab148@lemm.ee
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        5 days ago

        I just scroll Lemmy and every time someone mentions a Windows fix, I press the little save button.