I very humbly disagree, due to my own personal experience.milomak wrote:but how do i mount an ntfs drive is a jfgi/lmgtfy response i reckon.
When I tried Linux for the first time in my life, it was with Red Hat 9. Installed it alongside XP (with 128 MB RAM, 733 MHz Via C3 CPU), and the first thing that made any sense to me after seeing its desktop was one of the "Games" in its menus. Clicked it and it froze the computer right away. Made me believe Linux is too heavy for older hardware, but kept lurking into it for about next 6-8 months.
Now RH9 didn't even indicate the existence of other partitions (my windows partitions) in any obvious place, so that made me believe maybe that's how it works - only in its own partition, probably for good.
It wasn't before another year when I got my hands on a Live Ubuntu CD (7.04, found it with a magazine, given to my by a friend, I was student and costly magazines, internet etc. were luxuries I couldn't afford then), and realized Linux can actually work with windows partitions. Live session running directly from a CD was no less than a miracle to me (actually a long desired dream come true to me).
I was anything but a dumb computer user all this while. In my first 6 months with computers, without ANY guidance from a person or internet or other external sources, merely by reading software help files and tinkering, I had learnt..
..to create a bootable windows installation CD that could install 4 different versions from a single CD (win 3.11, 95, 98SE, ME),
..how to fit and run multiple cd-based games from a single CD (games that require their 'ORIGINAL' cd in the drive, able to identify copied ones and fail),
..how to edit registry to re-enable autorun (which was disabled by something once),
..how to create batch files and create autorun CDs that could autorun those batch files or a program in one of the folders or open a self-created Index web page listing (and hyperlinking) all the contents of the CD,
..how to fool a 3D game (Progect IGI to be precise, with missing data files in the installation source) to believe it is complete and not fail during installation..
..quite a few more things not worth listing here..
... but... I didn't know windows partitions could even be used with that RH9 installation of mine. Even when the Ubuntu Live CD told me they could, doing so via command line was an overwhelming big deal for me for quite some time!
So.. many things appear easy to us only because we are experienced in some respects while the newcomers may not be. Troubleshooting has become instinctive for some of us, while even using computers in new ways can be a difficult thing for many others - doesn't mean they are certainly dumb or lazy.
Having worked with students in an MBA college, I know that even "googling with correct search terms" can be surprisingly difficult for the brightest of the brains if they are not technically oriented. And I am writing this with my experience with a few brightest students of that college. They were the best in their regular studies, but among the dumbest when it came to computer troubleshooting, and it was definitely not for not trying.
Some of us here may point out - "why choose debian then when other easier distros are out there?". My answer is clear about this - remember my first distro was RH9? Because I knew no better. For me, Linux meant Red Hat at that time.
Sure those who come to these forums have the luxury of internet where they can get all the info required, not all their circumstances can be same as mine, but they can certainly be similar.
Being one of those who are keen to help, I have faced users who did make me angry only once or twice since 2010 (since I have been on forums). And at those occasions, I chose the better answers - "sorry, I may not be able to help you beyond this", or no response at all. LMGTFY was most certainly not going to make anything better.