@Overmyhead I sympathize with you, I know it might not seem like that but I do. I have yet to meet a Linux âexpertâ that started out as an expert. Hereâs the thing, Parrot Linux is not designed for beginners. Linux may be for everyone but there are various distributions out there with varying levels of difficulty. We try to make Parrot as user friendly as possible but our demographics in terms of end users are professional penetration testers and those who know how to modify their system extensively. Debian has fantastic resources and yes, because Parrot is a rolling release and Debian is not there are some differences in commands. Itâs unfortunate we donât have good documentation at the moment, itâs being worked on. I know what an enormous pain in the butt it can be to spend days trying to solve a problem and not finding a satisfactory answer.
apt is not nor was it ever broken. The vulnerability enabled people to inject code which could execute on your system but that would not prevent you from updating unless you were actively targeted (the chances of which, mind you my math is not great, are pretty slim).
Perhaps my first response seems aggressive to you and others. Generally speaking it is the user who screws the pooch. Thatâs not an accusation but a statement backed by collective experience and the volume of support tickets. Unintended user sabotage is pretty accurate. Hell today I tried to test switching from tty7 to tty6 to verify the commands to reply to a post and I gave X a fatal IO error and lost some of my work. Perhaps it seems like mods and others are out to get you with our lines of questions which makes you feel like youâre at a Sepah/Savak prison. If only our reach was so far, so wide and so evil. No, our barrage of questions and statements stem often from a trio of issues which visually probably looks like a venn diagram from hell.
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First, Troubleshooting methodology, (2), (3). We ask because we need to start from somewhere and triage (or process of elimination). We have to narrow down what the issue is. Often (and this forum is certainly no exception) users mention a bandaid solution for the problem because either being new or having had it work for them in the past they think it will work. This can have a domino effect of rapidly causing further problems. For example often people blame an application not working as the actual problem when it might have more to do with apparmor, firejail or permissions of the user. There is a large variety of experience when it comes to Parrot staff. We all know something but we definitely donât know it all and sometimes we give conflicting advice because we know something and want to help. Add on that most of the staff have latitude in terms of how they choose to respond which gives the feeling that some mods are more or less helpful. Finally, several users who do know their stuff or think they do and you can see how messy answers get. If one question is asked itâs likely the user didnât provide much in terms of logs or information and Parrot staff is grabbing air trying to troubleshoot.
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Second, Documentation. Our docs page sucks, Iâll be the first to admit that. The situation overall is pretty dire. I personally donât hold anyone at fault, that just happens to be the nature of opensource. Sometime the documentation is awesome and other times it doesnât exist. Better docs are in the works but not having a good docs section for people who do read is a big problem. Not having good documentation causes new users to not know how or what to post to properly troubleshoot while users/staff who do know often pass over the issue in favor of users with well documented problems. It creates a cycle where people need help yet few receive it as they donât know to post the right information and people who can help donât. This is futher aggravated by some people who have ignorant questions, some people misunderstand how Parrot/linux or a tool works and some people just want things to work and feel entitled to help. Parrot staff gives answers. People feel that the answer isnât good enough or choose to break their system and then beg for help.
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Third, people are lazy. Thatâs just human nature and though I wonât hold it against people I have zero patience for user laziness. Most forums hacker and otherwise will, by and large, ignore or ban users who beg, bump topics or fail to read the docs. We chose not to take that route instead we try to hit a middle ground of helping people when we can. We have four choices when a user posts without filling out the support form and/or providing logs.
- We can delete their post which helps no one and though it is donât we try to refrain from doing that, often we send it to community if there isnât enough information.
- We can allow their post and lock it forcing them to either fill out a new topic and provide information or piss off. The problem here is part missing documentation and part human laziness. A percentage of users feel entitled to not fill out the form but be given the help RIGHT NOW!! HELP ME! and its pretty childish (happens daily on Telegram). Often users donât repost, which is not necessarily a negative.
- We can move their post to community and let anyone try to help them but this isnât really beneficial to both the user or Parrotâs overall community.
- Lastly we can allow their post and try to troubleshoot, but it can be a very long list of questions sometimes.
Iâm sorry you feel that way. Iâm not some elite hacker, Linux guru or even a guy who can maintain packages. Iâm just a guy who likes to learn and solve problems. Iâm not here to display anything for anyone, the level I operate at is the human level, I am just as lazy and coffee starved as the next guy.
I look down on a type of person, the person who is too lazy to solve their own problems, they demand help but never offer it, they demand answers to a problem a single search on google could have solved for them. Yes, I have deep distain for those kinds of window licking shortbus riders. I donât think youâre that type. I certainly donât look down on you or anyone in this thread. And judging by the depth and thought put into your post Iâd hardly say youâre past your intellectual prime.
Parrot is being worked on, from the docs to the raspberry pi experiment itâs being worked on but, it takes time. Partly because our best and brightest are swamped keeping the OS afloat while people like myself are having to teach themselve how to program and package while moderating and/or learning other skills needed for the project. And partly because people have lives and jobs and there is only so much time in the day.
