Debunking The Oatmeal and the Perception of Linux as Difficult to Use

The Oatmeal made a webcomic that's been reformatted and recently passed around Facebook and other social media. It's titled “How To Fix Any Computer” and pokes fun at Windows, Apple, and Linux each in its own way. And although I love The Oatmeal, this comic’s screed on Linux promotes a myth that needs to be dispelled. The "How to fix Linux" instructions begin:

Learn to code in C++. Recompile the kernel. Build your own microprocessor out of spare silicon you had lying around. Recompile the kernel again. Switch distros. Recompile the kernel again but this time using a CPU powered by refracted light from Saturn.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In my experience as a professional Linux systems administrator, people who compile their own kernels are at least one (and usually two) of the following: kernel developer, avid hobbyist, or doing it wrong.

Part of the problem is that since Linux has always been a favorite operating system for hobbyists and programmers, people assume that you must be a hobbyist or a programmer to use Linux. Combine that with the bad habits and assumptions learned in other operating systems, and you get a comic like The Oatmeal wrote...