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it would not signal the errors in the first place), so it will give you some suggestions. Then, you try to call Microsoft. The representative will try very hard to help you out, or at least pretend doing so (or lose his/her job). Anyway, you will be given a lot of encouragement, and should you have any anger, the representative will patently listen to those. He or she will also try to hide away whatever the error means from you, and try to give you an as English-like as possible description. In the end, the representative will promise you that Microsoft will somehow have enough time and money to look at your case, and fix it in future updates.

As you see, you can be as angry, as rude, as impolite as you want, as long as you don't violate the laws. In the worst case, you can threaten to demand a refund, or recommend your friends stop using (this version of) Windows. You are needed, looked after, and promised great thing. You are the center, and money source.

Now, switch to GNU/Linux world. You get some problem, and the software will signal errors, and expect you (with starry eyes) to solve these problems. Again, if the software could have tried, it would have solved the problems already. So, acknowledging its short-coming, the software will depend on you. Now, assume you are no hackers or magicians, you will turn to the community for help. The most common way is to post onto the forum, or send emails to the mailing list, or join an IRC chatroom. If your demand is polite enough (the standard is different from one community to another), and the people there is sufficiently knowledgeable, someone will follow up and help you out. Even this help will be rather rough: you will be expected to be nice (or, at least keeping your temper in check), and learn along the way. Some instructions will be very technical. However, if the problem is resolved in the end, it will be reported upstream, and you can see how it will be merged into the next version (instead of a false promise).

Now, as you see here, there are some expectations on your part. You won't be able to remain ignorant, nor is the community your place to put out our anger. Okay, frustration may find some comfort, but anger will face punishment (in form of disappearance of help). You are also expected to contribute back, especially in term of time and effort.

Now, imagine you have used Windows and GNU/Linux for a while (usually half a year at least). What would you be?

If you are using Windows (or its equivalences

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