Creates something free to use and ask for nothing in return

People complain because they have to chmod +x a Shell file

A tale as old as the internet.

The more I see of Gen Z the more I feel secure in my IT job. There’s no new generation of home grown tech nerds coming to push us out. Half of these guys think hacking is hitting view-source on a webpage or (hushed whispers) finding the developer tools menu…

A meme made in response (not by me):

There’s a little trick my parents passed down to me whenever I asked them what a word meant or how to do something when I was a kid, “look it up yourself”. Look up the word in the dictionary, learn how to learn how to do things, and then when you get stuck ask for help graciously. Self reliance isn’t something that just happens, it takes effort and often failure.

STUPID FUCKING SMELLY NERDS

I can kinda vibe with that. Worst I’ve ever seen was installation instructions posted in a Discord server.

You know so for this specific instance I kind of find it to be, dumb, right, really stupid, but obviously this guy is trolling, and I think in this thread I’ve even seen an .exe that someone compiled get posted, so I guess, good things come to those who shitpost and bitch, or whatever.

Also glad this post is (hopefully) dead, so I can write my reflections that nobody else is gonna realistically read.

More broadly, though, I’ve seen a lot of technically minded linux using system admin types, nerds, basically, right, that just kind of shit relentlessly on anyone who doesn’t know as much as them. Which sucks, for sure, it’s really annoying. It gives me the same vibe as when people talk about how everyone who moves to their country should speak the language, and understand every facet of the culture and every custom, because they’re a “guest”. I mean, yeah, sure, that’s partially true I suppose, and certainly it would help if that were the case, to smooth the transition, right, but it’s also really stupid to expect everyone to acclimate immediately. There are external factors that drive someone to settle in a country, right, could be asylum, could be, socioeconomic asylum. Those are your two options, basically. It’s not really like these people don’t give anything back, either, since they provide high amounts of economic value, they import their culture which can be beneficial, shit like that. It would just straight up make more sense to accommodate them more, to be nicer to them, because it would make it easier for them to acclimate. You will statistically have better outcomes if you choose that path, compared to just kind of, holding your nose up at them, and demanding everything from them and giving nothing in return.

Not the best metaphor, I’ll admit, comparing a country to the collection of people who might be thought of as “tech literate”, right, obviously it’s apples to oranges. Nonetheless, I’ve seen a very kind of, elitist attitude, directed towards new people, from a group of people that should welcome anyone who seeks to understand their technology better, anyone who seeks more tech literacy. I dunno, I just feel like I’ve seen enough “well justified” stack overflow asshole responses that are like “uhhh I GUESS I’ll tell you about this but you should’ve googled it” when google was what brought up the thread. Maybe that’s more on google, though, I dunno. It gives me redditor vibes, like, NTA reddit vibes, where people kind of take any morally righteous position they can, in order to justify them acting like a twatsack.

It’s also, practically, a strange mentality to take, because none of this is really going to prevent or discourage people from making stupid comments, right. Gatekeeping is the fucking stupidest idea I’ve ever really heard from the internet, because it just doesn’t work. It just creates people who want to spit back at you, and that’s obviously going to work itself into a kind of positive feedback loop where you’re going to get flooded with more shit in return. It is energy that would be better spent making more accessible software, if such a thing is possible in these circumstances.

I dunno, at large, it is kind of these mentalities that make me think, it’s not really any wonder why FOSS software, despite being more naturally suited to computer architecture, compared to other shit, isn’t really as used as it should be. It’s mostly just a practical concern, for people. If people have to put in 30 minutes to learn something, then that’s half an hour, and if they’re getting paid federal minimum wage in the states, you could charge them like three bucks and it would probably be worth their time. It’s against the ideal, right, to charge for it, obviously it’s not really going to be a guaranteed ROI, also you’re maybe going to see a smaller userbase, because lots of people would rather pay free than cheap by a staggering proportion, and also you really can’t charge for it, and still have your software remain open source, lest someone else just copies it and spreads it.

So that all sucks, in practical terms, but sort of my broader point is that the ideological position of FOSS basically can’t compete with your stupid free market charge for money for software kind of shit. We get windows, we get mac, because the software, and the philosophies that built them, were more naturally suited to the socioeconomic environment they all propagated in. They are “more practical”, both in terms of your end user’s uses, but also in terms of how they spread. It’s cynical. It is our old friend of naive techno-optimism, rearing it’s ugly head once again. It also makes me think, you know, that what entails FOSS, are philosophical positions that are naturally kind of more suited to a smaller developer, that can’t build in anti-crack measures, or realistically charge anonymous internet denizens for copyright infringement, and thus, can’t really charge money for software, especially from what’s already going to be an extremely limited userbase. It’s also to their advantage to maybe try to seek help from their limited install base and bolster their numbers that way. I dunno. It strikes me the same way as non-cyberspace attempts at anarchism, right, where it just doesn’t, as quickly, as cynically, secure the means of resistance, and ends up constantly getting crushed by larger predators of ideology.

I dunno man, I just wish people would stop being mean to each other on the internet. Causes me too much psychic damage.

I think this is satire because the app in question is a social media finder and the only non computer users who would want to use it probably uses apple or won’t know what an exe even is.

Also

# clone the repo $ git clone https://github.com/sherlock-project/sherlock.git

# change the working directory to sherlock $ cd sherlock

# install the requirements $ python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

3 commands lmao

Boomer energy

Nah I kinda agree, just give me a “download” button somewhere. I don’t care about your build file, deprecated classes, list of supporters or whatever the fuck else you keep on there.

I just want to download the software and use it.

I kind of agree with the Reddit post. Like how hard is it to just provide a simple download button? Obviously if it’s an open source project and still in development there’s not a lot of utility in doing that, but there are situations where there will be a plug-in for a program and it’s been distributed via github.

And it’s got a terrible UI, I can never remember where the download zip button is, because it’s not obvious.

GitHub is easy

1. read the readme for any prerequisites

2. follow the installation instructions

3. forget you have the program on your computer

4. find another neat GitHub program

5. goto step 1

They’re not a script kiddie for just wanting a binary. Wtf is this gatekeeping?

I agree that github is for developers or people who at the very least don’t mind learning a bit of development and getting their hands dirty. The poster demanding an exe is quite entitled - and also from what I understand the repo he is referring to is a python repo, so there normally wouldn’t be an exe, it’d just be run via a python command.

There’s a bigger problem here, which is that technical skill in newer generations is also decreasing - as someone on reddit had once said “I’m a millennial and I’m doing tech support for my parents as well as my children”. A generation raised on tablets and phones have gotten the false impression of being tech savy, when their actual technical skill is using end products.

Expecting every github repo to provide you with something you just click-and-run is overlooking the complexities and reality of how code is. By it self that isn’t a problem, but the entitlement it takes to publicly and arrogantly post that on a public forum is astounding and counter-productive to people who work on those small repos.

People misunderstand the target audience of GitHub—which is specifically not the general public, but yes, developers. If you don’t want to be treated as a developer, don’t use a platform designed for developers. And I’m saying this as someone who’s having a horrible time learning hot git and GitHub works. (Not because it’s bad, I’m just a slow learner lol)