The landscape has changed a lot.
When I first was trying to get into Linux 15-20 years ago, this is pretty much how it was. I can remember being very frustrated that very few people I encountered seemed to be willing to assist at an entry level; there was all this presumed knowledge which I didn’t have (and if I’d had it, I wouldn’t have been looking for help in the first place).
Today there is a lot more entry-level help and assistance. There are more user-friendly distros and a lot more information online that is accessible to the average user who hasn’t memorised every GNU/Linux man page.
That said, there are still situations where getting help or advice is a real challenge.


This definitely seems to be US-based at the moment. The relevant page doesn’t exist on the Australian site, but if I log into the Amazon US site, it is there (albeit blank in my case, which is interesting).