I have seen that as well. Linux is a great OS, and I admire Linus Torvalds for starting the Linux project. But a lot of Linux geeks are extremely selfish and self-centered. They live in a very small world.
It’s comical in a way.
Like people who are hard-core into Dungeons and Dragons.
Teenage boys who have dreams of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark!
Remember, Linux is positively “BURSTING WITH FUNCTIONALITY”!!
It’s a very cloistered world.
They have yet to realize the capital that is peoples past experiences with various computers. Many times, I’ve seen on Linux boards someone would pose a question “Ho do I do Z??”
The Linux brain trust comes back and says “Why do you want to do that? You’d be much better off doing R”
The person asking the original question is bound to think “Well, I was just getting used to the idea that I might be able to get Z to work, and now they tell me I gotta use R? WTF?”
Linux probably does have the highest level of what someone might call the snobbery quotient to it. And that works very much against mass acceptance.
Nobody wants to be made to feel stupid just for asking a question.
The problem is not with Linux geeks, but geeks in general - It is just the unfortunate circumstance with Linux that the geek interaction is not buffered by the help-desk type. When you ask for help for Linux, you are invariably going to be addressing a Linux guru, and they have heard your question a hundred thousand times... and they HATE it.
It is no different in Windows programmers. If your question bypassed the help-desk types and went directly to the guys in the artificial light of the basement, with keyboards covered in Cheetos dust, and a serious Mountain Dew buzz going on, you would get EXACTLY the same reception.
Geeks are geeks. they tend not to be very sociable. Linux will catch up on that account - with more users, more help desk types and bow-tie boys are likely to join the ranks... there will be a tipping point.