GNU/Linux Support, Communties & Forums are Great (compared to Android & Co)!
 

I just had to experience what support/communty means on Android-related matters (and it isn't the first time).

Example LineageOS:

• There's the website and a wiki. Both barely cover how to install the ROM and some genral news.
• Their community links: reddit or IRC. Both formats suck big time, if you ask me. They are genuinely unsuitable for support questions, mostly because there's no easy way to search existing topics: reddit is timeline-based, IRC doesn't even have a timeline if you're not running an IRCbot!
• after that it's developers. I looked at some of their commits, and it's even more cryptic than the few github issues I sometimes look at. they also use something called gerrit. totally unknown to me.
• then there's xda-developers, but it's a jungle. i'm sure anybody who has used that site to any extent will agree. it's also not officially mentioned as a community on lineageos' website.

So between a website and developer talk there's a huge gap, which is nicely and evenly filled in our beloved GNU/Linux world.

But for LineageOS, on any of those community channels, people (i suspect teenagers mostly?) are arrogant/hostile, you get ignored or treated with derision when asking "where can i find this information".

yes, we know this from LQ too, but it's nothing compared to that!

and i have observed similar things any time i had to research Android-related matters:
there's huge numbers of people using the OS, much more than GNU/Linux, commenting on things in many different places, but almost no possibilities to find (objective) information.

I have not encountered here or in any other Linux place that I've visited, or, back when newsgroups were still living things, in newsgroups, or even in person encountered the arrogant RTFM Linux geek of myth.:)

I reckon you've found out where they've been hiding.

Have you ever developed an app for Android? Talk about losing hair. For one it's supposed to be really easy if your using the latest sdk, and Google's HUDE mind boggling IDE, but if you try to build with an older sdk or do something manually, this is outdated, that is incompatible, this is depreciated, this expired, wrong java version, you need to completely redownload all your dependencies(again), gradle can't find this, it can't find that, on and on... And then try to find help with this ;)

And that's just an app. I can't imagine trying to develop the actual system.

I did notice LineageOS moved and the new site is barely usable. Ive got lineageOS running on an old s3. I had to get the Rom off of XDA. I still can't make sense out of that forum (or what ever it is)

//End Rant

I guess this is a spin-off from your other thread - which I also replied to.

Developing ROMs is a hack - done by hackers. To even get started you have to find a usable exploit. What sort of people do you really expect to be involved ?.

my OP is a positive rant.

it's also an answer to what i hear exasperated newbies say very often: "no wonder your linux community is going down if you abuse me instead of fixing my computer!" - well, on most online communities, things are much, much worse.
LineageOS was just an (most recent) example.
i have experienced this time and again with android, windows, hardware forums etc.

we (not only LQ, i mean the entirety of linux forums) are still the best, most friendly and helpful community.
just don't abuse it.

and it wasn't the developers that triggered me - it was some random idiots on the #lineageos IRC channel, literally laughing at me instead of answering my question.

and i maintain, reddit is a bad choice for a help and support forum. as is IRC.

It's a code review tool, not useful unless you're wanting to send a patch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrit_(software)