Wandering Adventure Party

To translate formal Dutch to informal English: “bro, are you saying that if an undocumented immigrant calls us, the cops, and says ‘help help I’m being murdered’, we’re not allowed to go save them? do we need to ask to see someone’s passport before we pull them out of a burning fire? we, the cops, find this new law profoundly fucked up” https://www.politie.nl/nieuws/2025/juli/4/00-reactie-politie-op-instemming-tweede-kamer-met-anmw.html

a clarifying followup thought: “just use Linux” is implicitly in the context of “install it yourself to replace Windows and a few dozen different apps on your computer that you use for a wide variety of tasks.” Chromebooks run Chrome and Steam Decks run Steam, both of which are apps available on Windows that many people with average computer literacy are already exposed to — which is exactly why they’re successful; “Linux” is an implementation detail that’s not imposing a learning barrier. Those users are using Linux in the sense that Nintendo Switch users are using FreeBSD.

If you want to use that as an on-ramp for teaching people — “you probably have something in your house that already runs Linux, here’s some fun examples” — that’s great!, but you have to TEACH people how to use Linux as an everyday driver OS, and they need to have the time and interest to learn.

Examples of things that people with average computer literacy can “just” do:

- just reboot it

- just email it to yourself [unless it’s over 25MB or contains an executable in which case you’re not gonna “just” anything]

- just use an iPhone instead

Examples of things people with average computer literacy absolutely cannot “just” do:

- just use Linux

- just run your own email server

- just replace this polished, slick-onboarding but expensive software with a foss alternative but make sure you use this fork because the official one had some drama and it’s kind of poorly maintained and also just simply be someone who doesn’t need accessibility features or just implement the accessibility features yourself in a special dialect of C++ that just needs a particular build of gcc from 1997 available on an ftp server that only appears during the Witching Hour on a new moon

- just use a VPN, one that’s not a privacy-violating scam I mean

- just set up a separate media server and torrent all your shows and connect all the kids’ devices to it and just don’t catch a virus or get scary legal threats in the mail doing this

- just refrain from decking your smug “helpful” computer-literate cousin in the face

STOP: before you give someone less technical advice about computers:

Do they really "just" need to do what you're recommending, or did you spend your youth investing all your skill points in learning how to "just" do that?