Read this any Linux question answerers
 

I've noticed this start to happen - And am probably guilty of it myself

If someone asks a question - Such as 'How do I get IceWM to display desktop icons' people will answer with 'Oh I use KDE and it does it all for me'

This is probably the worst way you can answer any question and will really annoy the asker

The same goes for any 'I use RedHat and this has gone wrong...' style questions

Telling people to install Gentoo (sorry gentoo users but I see this a lot) is NOT solving their problem

Recomending things that work for you is a good but I have just read fracturedmind's "Window Managers (Linux)" thread - And nobody had suggested and 4 posts into it people had not suggested anything helpful beyond 'desktop icons are bloat - why do you need to use them'

The arrogance of that disgusts me

I don't want to scare people into not answering questions but - Think before you post something like that

But also remember that for most things, the answers will only be that person's opinion.

Opinion is not always fact.

I just felt I had to get that one in and I'm not trying to start any sort of flame war with it. It's just that wasn't really pointed out in any point of the original post.

Just install Gentoo, all your problems will be solved

:)

It is more the sort of:

Q How do I fix X?

A X sucks - Use Y like I do

Which I am against

All I was trying to get at is that in the area of linux, there is a lot more choice, so we end up with individual opinion coming into it. I guess if we don't try to control ourselves, then almost every topic will just become a holy war :P

I guess that by all means, give examples of alternatives (this *nix, there's more than one way to do something), but don't make it seem that it's the only option. Don't force you're beliefs onto someone else.

That's really the great thing about *nix; there's always more than one way to do things. With any Open Source system, you can hack it and customize it and mold it every which way you can think of. I'm always amazed at the creativity that's out there. So I think that it is really easy to get carried away with enthusiasm for our own personal favorites and opinions. But there is a fine line between enthusiastic expression of opinion and giving the impression of proselytizing. To my eye, if you have a favorite way of doing something that is different from what I have conceived, tell me why you like it. It's the one sentence answers that make me want to just say "WTF?!"