Wandering Adventure Party

@stux

> why doesn't the author of that course just use their own technique but instead are selling a course

But he does.

<tumbleweed>

His method is to sell phony courses.

@0xabad1dea

Oh. I see you muted this thread. No reason to go on now about the effort, how everybody can plug in an Ubuntu USB stick (obtained from the friendly geek in the family) and test drive (and they can "just" do this, I did some focus group testing ...) or even install Ubuntu on their computer with a mouse click.

The only thing they cannot "just" do (AFAICS, I don't know what the Ubuntu installler actually says), is to install Ubuntu besides an already pre-installed Windows. That typically requires some expert surgery.

(And yes, they cannot "just" run their own mail-server, typically, but also they need not buy the service with Google mail).

I am willing to follow this up with details (so, people out there, don't think that is all) not just for a thread muted by the OP.

@0xabad1dea

> slick-onboarding but expensive software

If all this software was only expensive, we'd have lost the fight for free software long ago. Fortunately it's often enshittified and the slick-onboarding is better called a bait.

Not taking any position on who can do what. My impression on people who are still using exclusively bought and proprietary software down to the OS is rather:

- Cannot ask for help (yes, "just do ..." is typically impossible. But that's the way the absolutely want to do it).
- If they got a problem, they want a silver bullet and if it doesn't come they think it's withheld with malicious intent.
- Of course (and I really can understand that) they don't like unsolicited advice.

Long ago, in an Indian(?) fast food restaurant with family owner belonging ot a specific religious group, they had a text hanging on the wall "Do not desire to achieve without effort".

And that's the point: Everything comes with a "price". Personal effort or dependency or just money. I see a lot of people unsatisfied with the effort (but see below) they think they have to put in with open alternatives, but then also unsatisfied with price/ quality / data protection / lack of autonomy in the proprietary software they are currently using.

In the end it's a question of the price (in the wider sense) they want to pay: The pain they have with what they currently use or a steep learning curve (but see below) with some effort they have to put in to go to the open alternatives.

There is, I agree, hardly anything that can "just" be done (no, actually, not even mail to yourself or, as the case may be, moving a file to an USB stick --- you haven't seen the generation of my father, 2 decades long computer users, handling those tasks). But the expectation is already off: "Do not desire to achieve without effort". You cannot even "just" drive a bike, or a car. It only seems effortless now, because you learned it much earlier.

Now about the actual effort: That needs to go into a follow-up reply.