Microsoft causes learned helplessness
Just because I have enough admin rights to fix basic issues on other people's computers doesn't mean I'm allowed to just install what-the-fuck-ever on my own computer. Even as someone in IT, our workstations are locked down, even if it's our team that is the one locking them down.
Also, if we're gonna be talking about which CLI is easier to learn and use?
I wonder if its Linux, which has different programs for each flavor (apt get vs pacman vs yum) and whose command-set is from the 1990s where you had to use as little code as possible because of space/cpu limitations so the names for what each command does are not very descriptive...
Or is is Microsofts Powershell which has an extensive get-help command which provides a deep-dive on each and every command there is on top of all the commands being human readable in a verb-noun format that can be read by a layman and generally understood what the command is doing simply by its name. Oh and get-command so if you're not sure what command you need, you can search for it by keyword.
Man pages can be pretty useless if you don't already know which command you need. In Linux you don't have as many options of learning what the command you need is, because they're not human readable. Instead you have to search online and hope someone can clue you in to the right command/set of commands.
Linux is the better OS, but Microsoft made the right choice by making Powershell commands human readable and straight forward. If Linux was being started from scratch, this is something I would put in the pipeline: "Human readable commands in a verb-noun structure."
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say for 80% of people, there is literally nothing they need to do on a computer that necessitates knowledge of the CLI.
Sure, they can use it if they want to. But most don't want to, especially when they can already do the same via GUI.
Switching them to Linux won't magically make them want to.
Getting them to stop and read what’s in front of them is one of the hardest things to do.
Personal opinion, that's not because the errors aren't useful, it's because people refuse to fucking read signs. It's not about Windows/Linux, it's that most people can't be arsed to pay attention to much of anything.
Source: Worked as a pool attendant with a gate. Gate had a sign with rules for the pool and instructions on how to open the gate latch. The number of people confused by the rules and the gate because they failed to look at the sign right in front of them was consistently higher than the number of people who stopped for two seconds to read the sign.
I think this has less to do with Microsoft and more to do with the average human has no interest in learning something that only passively helps them.
I only know a handful of things about working on an automobile, while my father could practically take one apart and put it back together wholesale.
I can take apart a computer and put it back together wholesale, but I'm lost on an internal combustion engine.
I pay someone with expertise to handle the engine, because I've spent my time learning other things.
Look, unless the people you're talking about are doing tech jobs, there isn't a reason for them to learn the depths of it, just like there isn't a reason for them to learn the depths of how their car works. Both a car and a computer are tools, and those tools are made to be used by people who may not know the depths of the internal workings of either.
This post feels like elitism and gatekeeping to me, as someone who thinks Windows sucks and prefers Linux. The idea that it's the OS that is "holding people back" and not that those people might have more important things to do with their time than dedicate half their life to an operating system is absurd. If someone spends 20 years becoming a doctor, I'm not going to act like they're a dumbass because they don't know everything about fucking computers.
People don't want to learn more because for most people not knowing more doesn't impact their fucking life. Just like me not knowing more about my car doesn't generally impact my fucking life. Because I've never had trouble finding someone to pay to fix it for me.
Surprise, we're the people who are paid to fix computers for the people who are just using them as simple tools. Maybe we shouldn't be so upset about that.
Also, last but not least, Android is a strain of Linux and it suffers from all the same issues listed above as Windows. Acting like you couldn't pull the same bullshit in Linux if you wanted to is kind of a joke, because it's already been done with Android.
All the ad infested bullshit we all hate about Windows 10 and 11? Blame Linux-based Android.
EDIT: Also, personal opinion, if we're talking about which CLI is easier to learn and use. Microsoft has made great strides with Powershell being easy and accessible to people who haven't faced a command line environment before. The things that make its command line better than Linux's are two things, and only two things. (I hate that it's object oriented instead of text oriented, Powershell has a lot of bad things, too)
First, human-readable commands whose names describe what the command does in a verb-noun format. This means instead of Linux with some very, very obscurely named commands that are not descriptive and you just have to sort of memorize, you can just sort of remember because the name is human readable.
Secondly, the get-command command is huge because it allows me to search these verb-noun names for the command I'm looking for. On Linux, if I don't know the specific command, I have to search the internet, because there isn't a built-in tool that will give me an idea of what each command does and allows me to search for them through a filter. Once you find a command you think might work, it has the get-help command which produces something similar to a Man page.
Linux has Man pages, but because there is no rhyme or reason to how any commands are named, it's not very easy to find the command you're looking for if you don't already know the command. On Windows, if I know what the command does I may already have enough information to find the command using get-command instead of having to turn to Google and be like "what command do I use if I am trying to do X?"
So if we're talking about the superiorly designed command line that's easier for first time users. Powershell is where it's at. Because Linux is a confusing fucking mess of 30 years of random decisions by lone programmers. Literally the only reason I know commands in Linux CLI is because I had to memorize them. I don't do so much memorizing Powershell commands. If Linux was being built from scratch today, I'd practically demand a similar naming convention system to make it easier to understand what the fuck commands do.
I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark...
"What the current wave of layoffs means for the games industry?"
Crunch, crunch, and more crunch.
This has got real "A cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education" energy.
Get out of my head! Get out of my head!
Even after story was added to the game in Minecraft, it allows you to play at your own pace a lot more.
Each stage of the game you trigger in Terraria, it gets more difficult, and new threats arise on the map. If you're not upgrading all your gear in the designed paths, you'll be suffering and dying a lot.
Minecraft doesn't do that so much. It lets you choose which things you want to work on, or if you even want to work on them at all. There's nothing stopping you from just deciding to build an idyllic cottage and not pursue a path to the Ender Dragon or anything else.
Terraria kind of pushes you along, Minecraft doesn't and lets you play at your own pace. Definitely for different types of gamers, in some ways.
I'd say Terraria has a lot more.... structure in how you upgrade things. Minecraft is a lot more loose and free with how it lets you play, while Terraria expects you explore, collect, create and use the things you discover and create to move the story forward.
We're all glad you're still here with us for another revolution around the ol' sun.
Reminds me of that Melvins music video...
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Agreed, but if everyone named things merely descriptively.... we'd end up with like 200 apps named "Image Resizer."
So it's a bit of a conundrum, because descriptive names are clearly far superior, but if everyone used only descriptive names, most apps would be very similarly named, and then you'd have to filter based on author/developer.
And frankly a lot of us aren't clever enough to make up a name that is both descriptive and memorable like "Resizeratus Rex" lol.
I mean, realistically in math, when you stack a bunch of the same things together, they add together they don't cancel out.
That's what happens when you add a positive and a negative.
That would be if they were alternating tags for "sarcasm" and "not sarcasm" and there were just as many "sarcasm" tags as "not sarcasm" tags.
But I mean this is all just semantics because last I checked we're not actually dealing with math here. Just like the Stock Market.
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I'm looking square the fuck at Windows 11 removing "Cut" "Copy" "Paste" and replacing them with fucking infuriatingly not obvious icons in the menu instead.
Do not fuck with me like this, Microsoft. Please.
According to these dimwits, people being able to be true to themselves is the source of all the evils in the world.
Anyway, yeah, agreed. It's such a small fraction of the population it beggars belief.
Also, because of the whole Open Office clusterfuck. People still download that shit not realizing it hasn't been supported in years and haven't heard of Libre Office. It leaves them thinking FOSS sucks because of a bad experience.
Most people who can't afford Microsoft Office just use Google Docs anyway.