Showing people that are running curl piped to bash the script they are about to run doesn't really accomplish anything. If they can read bash and want to review the script then they can by just opening the URL
What it accomplishes is providing the instructions (i.e. an easily copy-and-pastable terminal command) for people to do exactly that.
The problem is not that it's teaching bad lessons, it's that it's actually doing bad things.
most people can parse that they're essentially asking you to run some commands at a url
I know not to take it completely literally
Then it needn't be written literally.
I think you're giving the authors of such installation instructions too much credit. I think they intend people to take it literally. I think this because I've argued with many of them.
You have the option of piping it into a file instead, inspecting that file for yourself and then running it, or running it in some sandboxed environment.
That's not what projects recommend though. Many recommend piping the output of an HTTP transfer over the public Internet directly into a shell interpreter. Even just
curl https://... > install.sh; sh install.sh
would be one step up. The absolute minimum recommendation IMHO should be
curl https://... > install.sh; less install.sh; sh install.sh
but this is still problematic.
Ultimately, installing software is a labourious process which requires care, attention and the informed use of GPG. It shouldn't be simplified for convenience.
Also, FYI, the word "option" implies that I'm somehow restricted to a limited set of options in how I can use my GNU/Linux computer which is not the case.
The article is about the couple being fined for finding the stowaway after they left the port, the gender, age and reason the stowaway came to the UK is irrelevant to that.
Why do you believe the gender and age were included in the article?
They went to the trouble of explaining the age of the boy and where he was from and by your logic those bits of information aren't the focus of the article either.
You're just guessing, you don't know. We can all make guesses.
What it accomplishes is providing the instructions (i.e. an easily copy-and-pastable terminal command) for people to do exactly that.