When I first learned about Linux, it was a friendly geeky older cousin of mine who went out of his way to teach me, and show me Linux. This was back in about 1998. He personally invested about 8-10 hours, I would say, showing me all about Linux (both the command line, and Xfree86/x.org). This included fielding questions I had, to overcome gaps in my understanding about the differences between Linux and Windows (I had about 1-2 years of experience with Windows at that time, on my first-ever home PC, with Windows 95, which I owned, plus using my Dad’s Windows 3.1 laptop).
Understanding the UNIX filesystem was a particularly big concept for me to digest, which took me quite a while to get comfortable with (and lots of self-learning happened there, like a year or two). Also tricky was understanding partitions, and the boot process.
It’s dawned on me that similarly, we sort of can’t expect desktop Linux to ever really catch on, unless we are similarly willing to invest time “jumpstarting” the next generation, somehow, showing them the ropes, on, say, a Raspberry Pi. The personal interaction, and the direct first-hand experience and guidance can go a long way to re-assure someone shy and nervous that they will not break something. There can be a delicate art to helping them overcome a sheepish feeling that they’ll never get it.
What would you imagine to be a good way to “jumpstart” the next generation of young Linux users (and I’m not referring to Android smartphones/tablets/Chromebooks/WSL here)?