I'm still confused. The link that his link took you to, took you to Learn Unix in 10 Minutes, and a howtoforge article on useful linux commands.

How is that not helpful? And why should that information be duplicated?

I'll admit.. providing a link to those articles when an applicable question is asked (as the link to the thread you just provided did) is more nice - however, what makes you think that the people that answer questions *all the time* have those links memorized, saved, or otherwise readily accessible? Usually not.. why? Because we know it.

When someone says "How do I do X" or "Where do I learn Linux".. then the answerer likely must do the very thing that the user should have done... use google. Why should an answerer have to practice his already well-practiced skills in google to feed a user?

It's like an old saying: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.

Learning how to google properly is a fundamental skill in computing. Now, usually, me personally - if I have to resort to telling someone to google; I try to provide search terms, and sometimes I will provide a link to something useful I found from my own googling.

If, however, you can plug the near exact question asked into google and get an answer - such "helpfulness" should not be needed.