So this is why he doesn't do Linux... any more

LTT is hidden advertising, and there is no money for that in Linux.

Most of the "tech" youtube world is based around presenting mostly useless consumer products as it was technological advancement.
Most of their SAAS advertisers could be replaced by a "docker compose up", hardware ones, most of the time are just regular tools with one or two gimmick.
The way to get money advertising on linux is by misleading business people into getting useless enterprise services.
- Entreprise services are there so client companies have someone to blame contractually if there's an issue instead of themselves, that's very valuable.
- You are off your rocker if you think most saas products can be replaced by docker 🤣
  There is a big gap between you running jellyfin in your basement and securely and reliably maintaining services.
Hidden? What else is there to get from a tech illiterate channel?
Even his build guides are awful
Wouldn't advertising laptops that have Linux pre-installed work for that? Also niche hardware like the Raspberry Pi 5 for example
- Not ENOUGH money would be a more appropriate answer.
- Not if they don't advertise, and if they do, it's so little I never saw it.
Hidden? It's pretty fucking opaque. The point of most videos is to explicitly talk about whatever item(s) is about (CPU, GPU, cooling device, chair, tons of accessories, etc), he mentions lttstore at least once per video, and explicitly calls out sponsors.
Which advertising is hidden?
windows don't pay him too
- Everyone else does, why does it matter if MS doesn't 🤷.
- He has stock in framework laptops so Linux should be nice for him.
I missed the part where you provide sources/reasons for your allegation of crime?
- I've blocked his channels, so I can't give recent sources. But it was VERY clear he ignored AMD graphics for years around 2014-2018, until when they began to advertise, they suddenly got attention. Also it was very clear that when Intel stopped their program to support reviewers, he did a 180 and was suddenly VERY EXTREMELY negative on everything Intel. Coinciding with when AMD began to advertise on his channel.
  Just pay attention if you use his channel, and I bet you'll see it very quickly too.
- Here you go.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGW3TPytTjc

Even though I don't really dabble in Linux anymore. I lost all my respect for him. No, not due to this post, but the GN/Billet Labs situation, and especially the Madison situation.

I will never watch another one of his videos, there are other options.
Can't forget him being anti union as well, I also stopped watching all his content from that point onwards.
That and it rubbed me wrong when he went into small businesses to buy them out, only to ridicule all their product for being useless garbage.
- The owner was obviously happy to be rid of the old stock. They knew it wasn't moving. It is tech waste for a majority of the western world. Yes that stuff is still useful in other places arithe world, but it's just not particular to have it in a shop in urban Canada. The owner was obviously a good sport to play the games the video and expressed gratitude to be able to sell a bunch of stuff.
  You've missed some social cues or are looking for any small thing to pounce on. Go touch grass.
- Can you elaborate?
You mean the situation where a young zoomer with no work experience claims things without any proof?
- ?
- The claims that were corroborated by colleagues and the dude himself?

Fuck Linus and his shitty company. Greedy cunt.

Yes, he got very greedy.
Yeah it rubs me the wrong way when he treats his workforce as his personal tech peasants by getting them to do ridiculously luxurious upgrades at his house.
Sure they get paid but he's often getting stuff free or discounted from sponsors installed by his employees essentially for free as he gets to claim their wages as a tax discount all so his primary school aged kids can have their third $5000 gaming rig so they have a computer on every floor of the house.
Personally I would tell him to get fucked, it's insulting to his employees.
- I'm sure those videos do make significantly more money than they cost though. People are definitely clicking on them. And he also does expensive sponsored upgrades for (a few of) his employees. Of course he does do a lot more of those for himself though.

What was the context for this? Was he just explaining why he wasn't going to talk about how to install Linux during a video or something?

He made a video of how to build a pc and how to install the os. And basically if you choose Linux as a os you already know how to install it.
- I guess it makes sense. There's probably better tutorial videos out there for it
- What is there to know exactly? You just follow the installer and pick languages and whatnot. It's no different than installing Windows except that it's faster.
- The install experience is same as windows. You give few details and hit next. Unless, of course, you want to pretend that Linux is terrible and install a command line only distribution.

We also know how to install Windows. Make him install openBSD

No, LFS.
- RedStar OS ✊
openbsd isn't hard to install, it's easier than arch linux tbh

I think revisiting Linux would be great idea, but the current state isn’t that far off from what he experienced few years ago. Wayland protocols aren’t fully there yet, NVIDIA still needs some work, portals, desktops, 3rd party software and hardware support, package formats bullshit… There’s shit load of pending changes still being discussed, progress is being made, and even then, adoption of new solutions will take a while. It only make sense to revisit when there’s huge technological leap. Realistically with how slow things are going sometimes, it may be the end of the decade or close before the landscape looks really different.

When he first started he used Pop!_OS and an issue with their packages uninstalled the DE when he tried to install steam which was a really terrible look. A bug which I believe wasn't present in any other debian/ubuntu based distro. He then moved to Manjaro, an Arch-based distro, and just had more problems with hardware.
I wish they'd try again and just use a user-friendly distro with more momentum behind it and stability, and realistically that means Ubuntu or Mint. Or take a tour through desktop environments, package managers, and what the differences between distros actually are.
- If I recall the "Linus killed Pop!_OS in minutes just trying to install Steam" fiasco, the forensics shook out something like this:
  Pop!_OS's onboarding experience doesn't (or didn't at the time) walk users through a software update. At least at the time, I haven't used Pop!_OS recently so this may have changed, but the way you would use their GUI to run the equivalent of an apt-get update was to open the Pop!_Shop to the Installed tab and...wait. So the apt cache (the local copy of the catalog of packages available in the repository) is whatever it was when the install media was created.
  It just so happened that the exact version of the steam.deb package that apt cache pointed to had an error in its dependencies--it claimed that it was incompatible with Pop!_OS' desktop environment, and thus to install Steam, it would have to remove the GUI and all its dependencies right on down to Xorg. This issue was discovered and a patched version was pushed to the repository, but because of the way repositories work, you can still request an older version of software.
  Linus picked Steam and clicked the install button in the Pop!_Shop. It attempted the install, saw the dependency error, and bombed out, kicking up an error message "Failed to install Steam" with a bit more text.
  Linus Sebastian, then CEO of a technology media company, comprehensively failed to google the words in the error it gave him and find several independent forum posts, Reddit threads, and Steam community discussions saying "Run apt-get update and try it again." Instead, he got up on his high horse about Linux GUI's not working, started fussing about how you have to do everything in the terminal, and he instead looked up how to use the terminal to install Steam.
  I don't think he recorded his screen thoroughly enough to be sure, but either the page he found was strange or he skimmed a bit too quickly. Almost all of the time, web pages containing instructions for how to install software in a Debian-based Linux system (with the apt package manager) will instruct you to run the command sudo apt-get update and probably sudo apt-get upgrade first, then probably a sudo apt-get install [packagename] None of that happened, he just found the install command and ran it.
  The terminal spat out it's usual litany of "doing stuff..." before spitting out a long list of things it was going to uninstall, followed by a warning in bold allcaps to the effect "WARNING! This operation is likely to permanently damage your operating system. You should not do this unless you know exactly what you are doing. To continue, type "Yes, do as I say." Most of the time, a Linux system requires a y or n, and might even default to y if you just hit enter. Sometimes, in order to wake people up and kind of ask "are you sure?" it will reject a simple y and tell you to type out the word yes. Asking you to type out a complete sentence is a severe warning.
  Linus typed "Yes, do as I say."
  APT uninstalled the entire GUI and dropped into a Bash shell.
  In aviation, we talk about the accident chain. Few aviation accidents can be traced to a single brief action; instead a series of adverse events and mistakes lead up to an accident, and correcting any of them will avert disaster. Well, I count this accident chain as 8 links long. Contributing factors range from Linus's bad attitudes and poor troubleshooting skills to the Steam package's flawed dependencies to Pop!_OS' flawed package manager which doesn't refresh the apt cache on launch. The result was a crash and burn on international television.
I think an Arch/Void/Gentoo challenge just for him (no oponent, just to get it working with everything he needs) is what he should do now... make the fucker sweat a little 😂.
"Compile from source 🤨? WTF is that?... oh, you make the thingies that work in the OS from that thingie no one understands except the developers 😬... OK, let's give it a try"... dependency errors all around... "OK, that's it, I'm out!"
- Actually, I think the opposite would be warranted. That Linux challenge was structured as "We're going home, pulling the SSDs out of our computers, and with only Windows skills and knowledge we're charging in unassisted and chin-first into using only Linux!"
  What if they did a series of videos where Anthony teaches Linus or one of their other personalities how to use Linux as a gaming/productivity/creativity machine?
- While this would be funny to watch, it wouldn't help Linux at all, quite the opposite actually because many have the impression of Linux in exactly that way.
  So something like this would have to have a huge asterisk and constant clarification that this is "not the general state of Linux"
- He will just do the same thing as last time. He is too lazy to look something up online so he will just give up and say it's not ready yet.
Do you think using a steam deck counts? On one hand it is Linux, but on the other hand the default experience is more of a console than a PC.
- If you ever go into the desktop to do anything at all I'd say you're getting the Arch Linux experience.
- If you stick to Steam games and skip everything else then no, it doesn’t.
And windows is anything better?
Seriously, installed both Linux and windows and the Linux experience was 15 minutes eezie breezie, done. Windows 11 was an 6-7 hour hell hole of trying and retrying and having to make bios adjustments to requiring another windows machine (running in VirtualBox on my Linux install)
There is always something not ready with everything but Linux works pretty effin awesome and more importantly, reliable. It had been for at least the past 10 years (I've been using Linux exclusively for 20+ years now as my desktop even) and it's improving every day.
I'm at the point where I'm seriously wondering why anyone would be dumb enough to pay actualoneu for horrendous crap like windows that will spy on you and serve you ads.
Just switch already.
- The difference is, Windows no matter how shitty, is the supported OS and you can demand from your hw vendor or distributor that all features are accessible on it. I use Linux full time for 17 years and it works for me much better and I get everything done way easier than on Windows, sometimes it is as you say and I see other people using Windows computers to struggle with problems that I never had. But the reality is, Windows is what’s common for normies. If they have problem with it, they can just ask their family member/neighbor for help, or the shop where they bought their PC from.

People hating on linus but I'd say he's honestly done videos to help linux be in the light. Like it or not linux still has its pain points. More importantly if you want linux to have wide adoption then you'll need for manufacturers to ship them on devices and have them in store.

I hate on Linus not because he doesn't like linux, but because he is a bad boss who overworks his employees and has allegations against him.
- He actually became what he hated... at least that's what he used as an excuse for quitting his day job.
- The allegations are allegations. Its not against him personally but at some of his employees and they hired an independent investigator to investigate the issue. People had issue with perhaps certain things being crunchy and he walked that back and they're on a more laid back schedule now.
Absolutely. If you really want the “year of the Linux desktop”, the Linux community needs to start meeting people where they are, or atleast halfway between where they are and where Linux users are.
- A silent portion of the community actually prefers that normal people don't adopt linux. Those with entitlement and wanting to be spoonfed everything are best left to suffer with windows.
  Its kind of unfair because the playing field is not level. Microsoft made sure of this decades ago.
  The problem with linux is Microsoft. They worked hard over half a century to make it difficult for linux adoption. They paid hardware vendors to keep windows exclusivity. They forced secureboot starting at windows 8 causing problems for linux users.
  They made sure linux never got the mindshare that windows has.
His videos are almost always hit pieces as he purposefully stumbles around like a drunken monkey and fails miserably every time therefore LiNuX bAd.
Me talking to Linus at gun point: You're gonna install Arch on that thing AND YOU'RE GONNA LIKE IT!!!
Seriously though, you have no idea how many times people have given me latops with Suse preinstalled and told me to install Windows on them. They just buy them because they're usually cheaper (no Windows license). They don't actually care that they're made to be Linux compatible. They could have FreeDOS or come completely blank for all they care. They just wanna have a working Windows install on their laptops.
Pop os is better now
Also for wide adoption of Linux, If Linus who literally built and fixed computers to pay the bills and learned enough doing that to go on to build the media company he currently has can't get the Linux things done he's attempted, that's a pretty clear sign post that Linux is not ready for wide adoption in its current state.
Linus is better equipped to install Linux than im guessing 90% of people on the planet
- Linus may not be the all knowing tech god that a lot of people like to make him out to be, but I’d definitely say he’s the average “tech-savvy” guy, but isn’t someone who could properly administrate a homelab, let alone infrastructure for a lot of people.
  The Linux challenge was extremely accurate to what would happen if the average windows users tried to use Linux with no outside help. In fact, it’s very similar to my experiences with Linux, where I can accomplish simple tasks, but once I need power user features they’re much harder to find, documentation is patchy at best and you’ve got to hope they didn’t change anything in a recent version of the OS, cause some commands just change arbitrarily (looking at you Docker-compose on Ubuntu 20+)

He actually doesn't know how to install Linux. Or anything about it in fact. In fact, he knows frightening little about the tech he talks about.

"This prototype water cooler is bullshit, it doesn't work" as he has it improperly mounted on the wrong hardware
Remember that time when he uninstalled his desktop environment? :D
- Yes, do as i say
As someone who has sometimes watched wan show etc, it's actually quite obvious that he actually knows quite a lot. The problem is that their channel covers so many topics that it's almost impossible for one single person to have in-depth knowledge about all of them. Hence they have a writing team and Linus is more often than not, just a host.
None of that is an excuse for the issues in their videos for sure, but as long as they realize the problem and work to fix it, it's all good imo and their recent releases schedule is a good indicator that they have taken it quite seriously, as they no longer force themselves to upload daily.
I also quite like a few of their writers, they also host and those are often the most fun videos to watch these days.
- I can't self-report what industry I'm in without potentially doxxing myself, but I can assure you he knows a lot less than he lets on.
  I don't care what variety of topics they have, a respectable techie and creator would know how to admit when they are inexperienced with something. Linus does not. And he cannot admit he's wrong unless he can somehow spin it to make him look more likeable.
  If you are seriously passionate about tech, save yourself the heartache and find a new creator/influencer. If you are just there for the content, enjoy it while there is still some element to it that is enjoyable. They are not on a sustainable trajectory.

There's more to Linux than merely installing it though.

Yeah, but that just goes to show how little he knows-- he can't even install it right.
And when he blamed Pop!_OS for tanking his Linux Daily Driver challenge, biggest cop out ever. I had updated my Pop workstation when it happened. The issue was resolved the next day. He could have waited 24 hours and then continued his challenge unimpeded.
Actually a poser.
- "YES I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING"
  SurprisedPikachuFace.jpg
- Also couldn't he have just downloaded steam from its website?
- I admit to not really knowing anything much about the guy. I found out about him through reddit when people mentioned Linus in a context that just didn't make sense (because as we all know, there's really only one Linus). I never watched any of his stuff either. I'm more into text than video.
It has a learning curve, no doubt there, but once you're passed it, it really isn't that hard IMO.
But yes, under the hood, it's a completely different beast compared to Windows. But, one of the many things I like about it are, everything is fixed, installed, patched, debugged from a single app, the terminal. I'm sorry, I'm just way past the point of playing cat and mouse with MS. And they always have some next thing lined up in their arsenal to take even more privilges away from the user. Sorry, that's just not me any more. It was bad enough we had to do it with their "LTSC" versions (Windows before Windows 10), now they change shit every update and I'm supposed to find ways to circumvent that every few months 🤨. I got to the point where I had more software installed that circumvented this or that feature in Windows, than I had real software installed that I was supposed to actually use for every day work. It's just not something I like doing any more. I got tired and I'd rather invest my time in something constructive.
- I don't think Windows is suitable as a daily driver for most people's personal computers. For some business seeking MS support.... maybe.
Yep, it's one thing to have it, but you actually use a lot of os tools

Worst Linus.

tbh before i really cared about tech stuff i thought it was linux tech tips lmao

Hehe me too!

I can make it work, but I don't have a clear idea of what I'm doing especially with the partitions. I`m still too used to thinking in drive letters.

Once it clicks you'll think the drive letter thing is stupid. I can have 10 partitions from five different drives all seamlessly mounted on the filesystem on various paths and any program using them would be none the wiser.
Everything is a file. You can control all of your hardware just by writing data to different files.
On Windows you have C, D and COM1, COM2
On Linux and other *nixes you normally have /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1 and /dev/ttyUSB0
- Titty USBs??? No wonder nerds love Linux!
- this doesn't help at all
  Edit to clarify: You're just explaining back-end stuff that should be completely invisible to users (and normally is). The parent comment specifically mentioned partitions, when you install a new Linux OS the installer asks you "how do you want your drive split up? where do you want the swap, and how much?" etc etc. which a newbie can't even begin to answer, it shouldn't even ASK that if the user didn't specifically choose to set this completely manually.
That's actually one of my biggest gripes with Linux, it seems very difficult to keep track of physical drives and their mount points for when you need to swap things out. I still find it a bit cumbersome, and I've been using Linux since 2005.
- lsblk is not enough? It shows drives, partitions and their mount points. It also shows multiple mount points if one partition is mounted in multiple places (e.g. via btrfs subvolumes)
- I prefer monolithic systems because I can put the discs wherever I want. Using lsblk or just the mount command you get a list of all the mountpoints of different devices.
  Admittedly, the names of the devices can be confusing but it's something I have gotten accustomed to.
- You don't need to. It is handled automatically. When I plug in a drive it mounts automatically. If I want to unmount or mount partitions I just open up gnome disks and click the toggle mount button.
  Under the hood I believe it is just udev rules I think.

There was a time when you could learn something by watching his channel. But I unsubbed when every other episode was about his wife, his house, or some personal shit about his employees. Get the fuck out with that parasocial shit.

The house series was actually quite fun to watch, and you could learn a couple of things from it. But the other content except maybe factory tours and server stuff is just straight up advertising and boring.
I actually kinda liked that to be honest... kind of had a human touch...
I just didn't like that everything was Windows centered. I started using Linux more and more and just didn't find it as interesting as I did before.
- He used to be a straight up IT support style channel that had a bunch of useful information about troubleshooting and configuration.
  Now it's just "watch us build our 5,837th gaming PC from Wish.com!" He's officially gotten to the point where he has more money than ideas.

Never been in to the Linus stuff beyond specific videos related to a general search

I don't use an OS for some identity or hype reason, they're just tools that allow me to do what I actually want to do with computers. Server and laptop are Debian and my power desktop is Windows.

"Any more" this mofo couldnt do it even when he is getting paid to

Linus is just a windows fanboy, just like i am a linux fanboy

- Reddit has such a hard-on for LTT, but I’ve found their videos kinda insufferable for… 10 years? Then after the GN/heatsink selling (sorry fans, ”AUCTIONING” …) I knew they were poo.
- From every linux related ltt video or wan show I've seen. My personal favourite is probably a video about AtlasOS, where he presents modified windows os with many security vulnerabilities and makes some comment like "who needs linux when you have this!" (not actual citation, dont remeber exact wording, feel free to check it out)
- I mean... isn't it obvious?

I hope Steve from Gamers Nexus doesn't turn into someone like Linus

But I forgot how

Its easy for him. Hes so busy, you know, Forget how to install linux, forget to return priceless prototypes, forget to not sell the priceless prototype for profit.. forget to not lie about coming to an agreement with the company when you have yet to even talk to them..
curl -L http://ftp.komplettharmlosewebseite.de/files/linux.iso | sudo dd of=/dev/sda
- Get what you're trying to do, but that URI has got an extra scheme in it.

The problem with the linux crowd is that it's basically about something that should be transparent in your day to day life, the OS. Only Microsoft deals in adsolutes.

Ah right you are! Step 1: open we browser to https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/download.html Step 2: insert a Knoppix cd to start my build Step 3: ???????? Step 4: Profit!!!!

I believe step 3 is likely rtfm and then do what you just learned in the way you want your OS.
- I think step 3 is "go to the arch wiki"

What video is this quoted from?

His latest I think, he built yet another (😒) gaming PC.

Wasn't he named after the operating system?

I think he's mentioned multiple times that he just doesn't like using Linux, right?

No. He's said it's not usable by your average gamer, which is different. And for him personally it definitely has pain-points as it's unfamiliar, as the linux challenge showed.
He sings it praises on the SteamDeck, because valve has given SteamOS a UI that anyone can figure out by just using it.
Same for ChromeOS, he knows that windows needs to fuck off, but he's also closer to the average person in terms of how much he needs an OS to hold his hand and stop him from breaking things (again, linux challenge).
- The problem I have with his "challenge" is the same problem I have with all so called Linux challenge type videos. The average user is not installing an OS, any OS, period. Judging Linux by how an average user can or cannot install it is disingenuous and stupid. It should be judged on how usable it is by the average user if it's already installed and setup because that would be how it's used. It would be installed by someone that knows what they are doing just like they do with Windows.
- Ok, I remembered wrong then

There is always butthurt about him. He's a normal user and folks can't cope that Linux desktop is a mess for the average user.

XXXX year of the Linux desktop.

Linux is fantastic for running shit. It's pretty terrible for most normal users to use.

Many people here are using Linux desktop as their normal PC without any issues, for years. I have been happily gaming on it for about 8 years. You probably don't know how Linux desktop is for an average user nowadays. Our retired parents are using it too.
- What part about normal did you miss? The folks on lemmy are about as far from the average user as you get.
Reeally depends what you consider for normal use. If you just plan to use some office programs and network without being required to use ms format then what not love there. You often even have thr office programs preinstalled
- I don't see any job listing "Libre Office skills" but "Microsoft Excel skills" though.
Define "Normal".
Linux is fantastic for the low end user that really needs a calculator and a web browser. It really only has pain points for people in the mid tier that don't understand technology, but have to use it a lot for work. It's a big old bell curve.
- True but most people are in that middle group of users. I thought my mom would always be below it, so I set her up with Ubuntu and showed her how to open the web browser. But it wasn't long before her siblings were suggesting she install a mahjong app to play with them, or goofy camera filters for their video calls. After being reasonably sure they weren't spyware, I still had to break the bad news to her: "Sorry mom, Windows only."
  She's currently running a refurbished ThinkPad with Windows 10 pro.
- 🙄 oh God here we go with not understanding tech.
  You can understand technology and dislike Linux DE. It's so condescending.
yeah, as a video/media guy, I'm still hard stuck on windows. it's just not viable to make enough money and say no to the jobs that require adobe. you'll just go hungry if you try...
Linus Torvalds himself also said this and basically positied he thinks Valve will be the company that brings us to a working desktop ecosystem by deciding on a universal desktop app packaging format.
I saw a video recently about the history of x11 development from retro bytes on YouTube and it is pretty much exemplary of the nature of open source development. I think I understand this whole conundrum a bit better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-N-fgKWYGU&t=0
- Flatpack really had solved packaging IMO.
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  https://www.piped.video/watch?v=R-N-fgKWYGU&t=0
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
It's not a mess. If you install an appropriate distro, say Ubuntu or Linux Mint, the average user would be just fine using it. Judging it based on installing it is being disingenuous. The average user isn't installing an operating system, Windows or Linux. You know OS installation gets handled by someone that knows what they are doing regardless of what OS it is.
I think its just a matter of taste. I've used Linux for a long time and I will choose GNOME or Cinnamon over anything any day.
I also appreciate that I don't need a online account and everything I do isn't being analysised.
- The telemetry thing got really out of hand. Me spending more time on blocking shit instead of actually using the OS... sorry, but I'd rather invest that time in learning something new than trying to circumvent things that shouldn't be there in the first place.
Oh boy you're still hating on linux and shilking for big corp.
- Yeah? Where's the shilk? What's a shilk?
It's absolutely fine for most normal users, the exception being people that need to run proprietary software that only runs on windows
- That’s a significant portion of people. Anyone using an Adobe product, playing half of the top 10 games on steam or using any proprietary hardware is basically locked out.
Linux is fantastic for running shit. It's pretty terrible for most normal users to use.
Skill issue.
- Imagine insulting someone who said "this sucks for normal user" with get gud 🤣
  Absolutely fantastic. We've really gone full circle.