@mhoye can I just be a jerk and say that “it depends on the software” ?

I mean, people tell me that “if I google an issue about #OpenBSD, I can't find answers, why is that? is it a dead project and no one uses it?"

And I have to explain to them that “No, the docs are SO GOOD that people don't need to ask questions online and answer them. They just read the docs"

So I agree with you, error messages and docs are garbage, but not for everything. However, completely true of GNU :P