456: Cautionary

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Cautionary

Title text: This really is a true story, and she doesn't know I put it in my comic because her wifi hasn't worked for weeks.

Explanation

Many people who use Linux start out not really knowing anything about it other than that it's free. So, they find someone who knows about it to help them set it up. Megan decides to install Linux on her new PC, and calls her cousin Cueball whom she views as her personal Linux expert.

Xorg (officially X.Org) is an implementation of the X window manager, a program responsible for the graphical display used on Linux. If it has configuration problems, which was quite common with some video card drivers back in 2008 (especially those for ATI Radeon cards), it is often difficult and/or painful to fix (see 963: X11). Man pages are manual pages for Unix-based operating systems and software, usually accessible online, explaining in simple unambiguous language what certain things are, how they work, and providing clear illustrations of their use.

Linux has many versions, called "distributions". Each distribution, or "distro", has a different look and feel, and different feature sets and design philosophies. Ubuntu is a very popular "beginner" version of Linux, designed to "just work" and be familiar/usable to people fresh out of Windows. Debian is a popular but somewhat more "advanced" distro, more traditionally "Unix-like" than Ubuntu, with a huge and diverse base of supported software that generally requires more Linux know-how to configure and use, or at least more eagerness to learn. Gentoo is a very advanced distro allowing for extreme customization and optimization but requiring extensive install and setup time. Because Megan is fed up with Ubuntu trading functionality for ease-of-use, she decides to switch to Debian or maybe Gentoo, both of these successive options prompting Cueball to fear that she may just be getting in deeper and deeper. ("Autoconfig issues" refers to 416: Zealous Autoconfig)

Some advanced users of Linux choose to compile their kernel from source; Gentoo requires this, and is customarily compiled locally. Source code is a computer program expressed in an easily human-readable format, often simply as text. However, source code cannot be run directly by a computer, and instead needs to be "compiled" into object code, a computer-runnable but human-unreadable low level code. A coder will generally hack a program in source code, then compile their source code so that the computer itself may run the program (see 303: Compiling). This means that with Gentoo, instead of downloading an already functional Linux system to install and run, users download the source code for the system, customize it to their own needs, then compile the code into a runnable version of the OS, all before they can begin to use the system. To many such advanced users, their installation of Linux is like a hobby sportscar: A never-ending project, constantly tweaked and cleaned and adjusted to improve performance, that spends far more time sitting around with its hood open than actually being used for its ostensible purpose.

In the final panel, Megan has become addicted to Linux, and is lost in the flow of hacking her kernel to her liking, having forgotten whatever it was she originally purchased the new PC to do.

The title text jokes about the bad support for many then-common Wi-Fi cards within Linux back in 2008.

Transcript

Linux: A True Story:

[Cueball talks on a cell phone.]

Week One:

Megan: Hey, it's your cousin. I got a new computer but don't want Windows. Can you help me install "Linux"?

Cueball: Sure.

[Megan sits in an office chair with her laptop on her lap. She is on the phone.]

Week Two:

Megan: It says my XORG is broken. What's an "XORG"? Where can I look that up?

Cueball: Hmm, lemme show you man pages.

[Megan crouches on the floor with the laptop on her lap. She is still on the phone.]

Week Six:

Megan: Due to auto-config issues, I'm leaving Ubuntu for Debian.

Cueball: Uh.

Megan: Or Gentoo.

Cueball: Uh oh.

[Megan lies on her stomach with the laptop on the floor. On the floor are several pieces of paper and a book. Cueball stands to her left.]

Week Twelve:

Cueball: You haven't answered your phone in days.

Megan: Can't sleep. Must compile kernel.

Cueball: I'm too late.

[Box with text:]

Parents: talk to your kids about Linux... Before somebody else does.

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Discussion

Isn't 'Talk to your kids about...' from a famous Unilever ad? 101.174.52.183 09:47, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Is this Megan? Her hair seems awfully curly and it says she's his cousin. Is there an official transcript? Theo (talk) 20:46, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Official transcripts, if they do exist, do not contain names in general. These names are just an invention by some communities like this wiki. So, if you have a better stick figure which would match her, talk about this.--Dgbrt (talk) 21:16, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

She is clearly not Megan. I propose to call her cousin. Xhfz (talk) 22:20, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

There exists an official transcript for each comic, available to see in the page's source code. According to a comment in 1037:_Umwelt, Randall does apparently not type those, but is seemingly done by Davean, his friend maintaining the server. (Note: this is just a guess) Vgr (talk) 11:22, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

I don't think that this is Megan either. I propose to call her Alice, though, in reference to cryptography. Official.xian (talk) 19:46, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

I think we're all forgetting something very important here: It's a true story, therefore she has a real name. If we really wanted her correct name, we'd be pestering Randall for it. Anonymous 23:26, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

And since it's a true story Cueball here's probably meant to be Randall himself. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 08:57, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

And the hair not reminiscent of Megan.173.245.55.25 17:26, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Then why has nobody fixed it to say Cousin instead of Megan?... 173.245.54.166 19:42, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

Done. I'm not sure abiut the hyperlinks though, if they're supposed to be on every reference to curball then someone shoulf add those. Bbruzzo (talk) 15:28, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

The last paragraph is taking quite a leap. While she has obviously learned over the 3 months, we have no idea if she is actually building her kernel in a critical and meaningful way. Does not fit with actual comic. flewk (talk) 19:28, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

The part where it says man pages use simple unambiguous language made me laughThaledison (talk) 17:59, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

It's called mansplaining for a reason... 172.68.59.186 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Shouldn't it be explained outright that Randall is Cueball (since title text confirms it's a true story)? -- [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]]) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=456:_Cautionary&oldid=226935 "There's no learning curve..." edit" is not quite right. Though all Man Pages should be accessible, do you remember the first time you came across something like:

URI       = scheme ":" hier-part [ "?" query ] [ "#" fragment ]
hier-part = "//" authority path-abempty / path-absolute / path-rootless / path-empty

...and wondered what it meant, or how to parse it? Some of the Man Pages out there are even more technically-inclined, presupposing prior knowledge (or where to go to get it), which may not be their intended philosophy but is nonetheless a fact. Not changing anything, but pointing this out. 141.101.99.20 13:22, 12 February 2022 (UTC)