I use VMware Player to install and use different Linux distributions. I find that using a virtual machine is easier since I am still in the learning phase of using Linux. When I make a mistake or I don't like a distribution it is just easier to start over again in a virtual machine. VMware Player has extra software that it calls VMware Tools. This software makes it easier to move your mouse in and out of the virtual machine and host as well as improves the virtual machines video performance. Some operating sytems like Ubuntu install in VMware through a process they call Easy Install. VMware will install these tools automatically for you but many distributions like Linux Mint versions require you to install VMware Tools manually. VMware provides instructions for manual installation but they are a little hard for me to follow since I don't know how to use the command line. I have been able to complete the VMware Tools installation in the past by using these instructions and fumbling my way through it but I end up forgeting how I did that a month down the road.
I needed help so I turned to YouTube. There I was able to find a tutorial that showed how to install VMware Tools. It was for Linux Mint Debian but I was able to follow along and had no problem getting it to work for Linux Mint Xfce. The tutorial was "silent". It had music in the background but no narration. It was clear enough to me what was going on and was just enough help to get through my problem. There were a couple of things that would have been confusing for someone who had not been through the installation process before. He was just taking the defaults during the installation which might not be obvious to a beginner who hadn't tried this before. I wondered why the author of this very good video didn't include narration. Maybe it is just because it seemed so obvious to him. But when I went to his YouTube Channel called StanDumitrel I saw that he was from Romania. I thought it was pretty cool that someone could make a video that could relay technical information that people speaking different languages could use. The version of Linux Mint Debian was using English on the desktop but someone with limited English could follow along and get things done. After all, I was following along without knowing the command line language of Linux. It made me think of YouTube in a different light as something really global. Yes, I got the help I needed but YouTube was spreading technical information across languages, cultures, countries, and continents. YouTube became a little more significant to me than just a place to watch cat videos and people falling down. Thank you YouTube and thank you Stan Dumitrel.
