A Challenge to the Naysayers

[FullScale4Me]

I've seen help requests go to 3 pages (>21 posts) when no QSI was shared before a solution was found. In a few cases, the original poster went missing and an "I'm having that problem too!" showed up and only that second person benefited from the proposed solution(s).

Yes, it could be that the OP forgot to circle back and report success, but I hope that even in 2024 it is more rare than the norm.

[tomcashen]

Whats a QSI?

[Jerry3904]

Quick System Info

[tomcashen]

Dooh! Thanks, Jerry. My brain needs a QSI.

[siamhie]

You also have to consider the uptime. At 4 hours and twenty-one minutes use on a laptop, 53.8 C is nothing to worry about. I would be concerned if that was the starting idle temperature.

Laptop temps will always be higher than computer tower temps which is what I suspect ghunter is running a computer tower.

[lars_the_bear]

Concerning the QSI request which is the subject of this topic, consider this scenario. Your car is acting up and you are searching for a mechanic to fix it. However, the only information you are willing to volunteer is that it has a gasoline engine. How successful do you think that your search is going to be? How much help, if any, will you glean? We only care about the malfunctioning machine and similar to the mechanic, we only ask for the bare minimum information necessary to solve the problem

Sure, that's an entirely fair point. There are two important differences, though.

1. I'm not communicating with the car mechanic over a medium that is see all over the world, and
2. The car mechanic I employ lives in my neighbourhood, and I've known him for twenty years.

I receive technical information from my clients, over a web interface. Some of my clients know me personally, but most do not. But, even if they don't trust me, they can at least sue me if I mishandle their data. There is a strict code of practice that governs how I store and use that information, which is enforceable by law. If it ever ended up in any public forum, I would be in trouble; the kind of trouble that requires lawyers. And none of the data I handle appears to be sensitive, or capable of exploitation.

Sadly, we live in a world where a measure of paranoia is justified. Probably, asking people to send this QSI information would not even have raised an eyebrow ten years ago. It's almost certainly harmless even now, but people see things differently these days.

I don't claim to know what the solution is. It might help a little, perhaps, if 'send QSI' wasn't the first thing everybody was asked. Just my two cents' worth, of course.

BR, Lars

[DukeComposed]

It might help a little, perhaps, if 'send QSI' wasn't the first thing everybody was asked.

The MX Linux devs have built a tool that quickly and consistently provides generic system diagnostic information which can potentially solve your issue if an expert can read and interpret it. You don't have to have years of UNIX experience to understand where all your system config files are and you don't even have to be the sharpest pencil in the drawer to just run the command and then copy and paste the output. Old greybeards who wear suspenders and write their e-mails in vi can use the tool. Newbies who confuse "hard disk" with "memory" can use this tool, and everyone in between. It's easy to run, easy to share, and can save a lot of time and agony for everyone.

And still people won't use this tool.

They won't use it because they don't know it exists. Then they won't use it because they haven't read the forum rules, which are linked on literally every page. Then they say they'd love to run the tool but gosh, shucks, Russian crime syndicates exist so, I'd best not let the world know what my partition table looks like for my own personal safety. Surely you must understand. Anyway, about my problem I haven't fully described, how do I fix it?

No one should have to spend their time guessing what your fix might be when you have an all-in-one tool that could have helped paint a clear picture 30 posts ago. This is not only a matter of wasting time and violating the rules of the community. It is willfully withholding information that could help you move on with your life. It's just plain rude.

[Freja]

If you (or I) have not any bad use in MX Linux, but Machine name, model, HDD/SSD usage amount detail expose, I feel uneasy.
Also, HDD/SSD composition / configuration expose also concern privacy I think.
It's maybe not only me think that.

QSI can't detect location, organization, name etc, but private machine's privacy expose is feel some little resistance.
The problem may lie here. It's privacy.

I think it's good dev team might consider cutting out some privacy details.

[lars_the_bear]

No one should have to spend their time guessing what your fix might be when you have an all-in-one tool that could have helped paint a clear picture 30 posts ago. This is not only a matter of wasting time and violating the rules of the community. It is willfully withholding information that could help you move on with your life. It's just plain rude.

I absolutely get it. You try to help, and the people you're trying to help throw your efforts back in your face.

And, yet... the landscape has changed. We don't live in a world where people feel entirely comfortable about handing over a big chuck of data for world-wide perusal, whose potential for abuse they can't assess. You've only got to look at how sophisticated browser fingerprinting has become, to see how seemingly innocuous data can be exploited.

I'm one of the 'greybeards' you mentioned, and I actually do write my emails in vi. I remember a time when the Internet was a friendly, cooperative place, peopled by tech-savvy individuals who really did trust one another. Nobody was trying to scalp you, or monetize you, or steal your identity to get access to your pension savings. Or so it looked, through my rose-tinted monitor screen, anyway.

Those days are gone. We've allowed the corporate sharks to turn the Internet into an urban hellscape, and now we have to live in it. I'm not worried about Russian crime syndicates -- there are problems much closer to home.

If solving a problem needs certain information, and the person seeking help can't, or won't, provide it, nobody's going to hold it against you if you can't help. Everybody understands you're not a psychic. But to accuse people of being 'plain rude' when they have concerns, that seem to me to be entirely justifiable, is a bit harsh.

BR, Lars.

[DukeComposed]

Everybody understands you're not a psychic

Oh how I wish this were true.