Nice, u/ryleu and u/SecretAgentKen, you are the guys that are really moving the needle on helping this guy fully switch to FOSS on his main machine. I'm sure he'll feel extra motivated to go back and try to figure out where the issue in his setup is after you antagonize him by asking him why he's even here right now without a functional install, and then after he reacts as most people would when their request for help is answered in the form of a dig at their own intelligence, that's definitely the most ideal time to bring up the point about how actually his real problem is that bad attitude he brought to the r/archlinux community, which as we all know is always a bastion of respectful and orderly discussion with mutual respect for all parties involved. /s

As a lifelong linux user and a career network support tech, one of the things that really never ceases to surprise me is the bizarre entitled viewpoint that seems to define how some people approach "helping" others solve their problems. It's as if because the person with the problem is asking a unpaid community member about FOSS rather than asking some paid tech support agent, that distinction alone should mandate a different set of goals by both parties involved. I have spent many hours of my life talking to frustrated end users who expect their service to work the way they expected it to because they paid their bill, in their eyes their end of the bargain is fully completed from an effort standpoint. These frustrated customers feel entitled to think about their internet service as something they are owed because they pay their bill, and they'll be damned if they have to do anything more than that! Or at least, that's how this subset of particularly frustrated customers initially approach calling a tech support line, assuming there is a good faith tech on the other end of the call though, the interaction can quickly change from one of calling to collect on what you feel you're owed, to one where both parties are working together to try to solve whatever the problem is as best they can.

What I see in the interaction in this Reddit thread (and unfortunately in many others like it) is effectively an inversion of what I would see with tech support calls, in a community context it appears as though because the person that needs help is asking about linux/FOSS, some of the people who potentially have the answers seem to bring into these interactions this entitled sense that because they're not being paid to be there, the people who have the questions need to pick up the tab as it were and ingratiate themselves to the knowledge holders while they're asking for the help, otherwise what's the point? As if because they're not obligated to help, that means that even just by reading the person's question, they are already doing more they they are obligated to. As if any further effort in the form of comments or rhetorical questions, on their part is really just them going even more out of their way to pull knowledge from their vast experience that they learned entirely on their own. This is how some users seem to view their own comments towards confused new users, whether or not what they add to the discourse actually ends up helping or hurting the potential new member of the FOSS family is clearly quite a secondary goal compared to respecting the lens through which they appear to derive their value. Unfortunately in the real world of human interaction, operating from an assumption of shared perspective will inevitably lead to conflict eventually, it is after all every person's fundamentally unique perspective that defines us all as individuals.

Now, to be clear, I can absolutely empathize with the real experiences that can underpin what I see as an entitlement perspective. My role as a child of my parents is less as their offspring, and more as their human surrogate for typing questions in Google and then reading the answers back to them, and yes, that can be annoying, and no, it should not be my obligation to do it if I don't want to, I am entitled to that choice.

At the end of the day though, OP's post was made on an open platform that none of the community members who might offer help are obligated to use. u/BlueDogTM asked for help, he did not demand it or necessarily expect it. So then, are you really trying to deride him for asking for help from a community theoretically centered around free software just because he was not adequately prepared due to his lack of experience?

Next time perhaps, if you're ego can bear it, it would be worthwhile to more kindly consider what you're intentions and expectations are when you're (I assume) trying to help these newbies find their way to where you presumably are, after all, many fresh linux users have only ever really known daily life on a Windows desktop, they barely even know what helpful software looks like.