ive heard some mixed things about ltt so i want to know if theyre actually bad or not
and im not watching them for linux help, i just like the content, but i also dont want to support a bad person
Thin education through entertainment, passing as tech and product reviews. Quality is subjective, but they are the bare minimum right after mkbhd/marques brownlee.
whats wrong with marques?
Garden variety Brand-Safe Hype-First Tuber. Has more air of nothing than a bag of Lays chips.
“The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, & Responsibility” (44:14mins) by Gamers Nexus on August 14, 2023: YouTube or Invidious or Internet Archive
This video is not monetized. This video covers our serious concerns regarding the data accuracy of Linus Media Group, including Linus Tech Tips, ShortCircuit, and TechQuickie, particularly as it relates to rushing content out the door to favor – by staff’s own admission – quantity over quality. As the company continues to expand into its LTT Labs direction, the importance of accurate data increases; however, even as ‘only’ entertainment, there are still certain responsibilities to the consumer and the manufacturers to report fairly (and to have defined corrections processes in place). We tried to approach this as objectively as possible and hope that viewers are able to listen to the evidence we present, particularly as it relates to significant and frequent data errors that now present in nearly every technical review video.
TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - The Last 2 Weeks 01:40 - LMG is Rushing Too Much: Establishing the Premise 03:48 - LTT's Own Employees Agree 06:58 - This Isn't "Drama" & Risks 09:05 - Bad Data from Linus Tech Tips 10:12 - GPU Review Errors 15:02 - CPU Cooler Test Errors 19:09 - PSU Review Errors 19:53 - CPU Review Errors 22:39 - Asterisked Errors 26:15 - Ethical Concerns: Irresponsible Actions & Conflicts 28:21 - Ethical Concerns: The Review of Billet Labs 34:49 - Ethical Concerns: 'Not-Review' of Pwnage Mouse 36:53 - UNACCEPTABLE & The Community is Disturbing 39:22 - Unfair to Consumers, Manufacturers, & ReviewersNew video after Linus Tech Tips responds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3byz3txpso (only from 00:48 to 12:57 part)
LTT always seemed like somebody who doesn’t know wtf they’re talking about, but pretends to and appeals to people who know even less to make them feel smart. I can’t stand the dude.
Everyone knows someone like this. Opinions about everything, but talk to them for five minutes and it’s apparent they know nothing.
LTT is the definition of a mile wide and an inch deep.
Despite all the criticism against them that I agree with I still personally like then and click in their videos every now and then.
What I appreciate the most is the are constantly pushing Linux often even if they are misguided, and they have a large audience of rather normal people.
I do think they are positively contributing to linuxs growth, and helps normalize devices like the steam deck.
We need more casual stupid users for Linux to ever hit the year of the desktop.
He hate unions. Doesn’t pay his workers fairly. Drives a porsche. Has a private jet. Knew that honey was scamming him with the last click affiliate links switcheroo and instead of exposing them he quietly ended there sponsorship with them.
Also the 2 - 3 sponsor breaks plus the “at ltt store dot com” self promotion every 5 minutes really makes the videos unbearable to watch even with sponsor block.
Let alone all the non compete shit with his workers as well as the working atmosphere that was reported by some of the workers.
Revanced autoskips all of those sponsor/ad segments.
Technically sponsor block dies this. It’s on more projects than just revanced.
It’s mostly entertainment, but it has some good info sometimes.
I’m pretty sure Linus doesn’t know how to use a computer.
Hardware-wise, he knows how to put things together and modify it to suit his purpose but when it comes to installing and using software, he has no fucking idea what he’s doing.The two Linux challenges that he has participated in has made this clear for most of us Linux users…
But it’s not just Linux he struggles with, he makes all the same fails with windows all the time.Glad it’s not just me that feels this way. He’s always come off a somebody who doesn’t really know shit about fuck but caters to people who know even less so he can pretend on the Internet.
how 😭 i bet an 8 year old can operate windows
An 8 year old with a credit card, maybe.
watch the video of linus buying a private jet and see if that’s the kind of guy you wanna support
linus buying a private jet
Wow, thanks, I didn’t know that.
Before he was just mildly annoying and not something I wanted to watch.
Now he’s confirmed as an asshole, who must not be supported, from my perspective.
First trip was a family vacation to Mexico
It’s a jet for his company though, right?
doesn’t make it any less private
And his upcoming “family vlog” he is about to launch. And no, it won’t be cringe, lol. shudders
No. Fell off a very long time ago.
“Quality clickbait” is the best description I have.
It’s an entertaining channel, prone to reviewing flashy stuff, rather than useful tips as the name might suggest. But not completely stupid, those guys have some knowledge and skills to back it up.
I can’t say how it changed over time, I’ve only watched them occasionally over the last 2-3 years.
They’re basically filling in that market for entry level tech knowledge and enthusiasts that used to be occupied by CNET and Tom’s Hardware when written articles were king.
That about sums then up. They have been on a streak promoting Linux, which is pretty great since they are a bigger channel. Are they perfect? No, but they are helping get new users into Linux.
I remember making the choice to just stop watching any Linux-focused videos from that channel. They always just tended to frustrate me. But, as I understand, the main host has started to really enjoy Linux lately due to the Steam Machine. Have their Linux videos improved at all due to that?
I can’t say that what your take on their Linux videos is wrong, but they had valid concerns and call outs. Their problems are reproducible and are things that would have kept me away from Linux before they were addressed. He genuinely wants Linux to succeed so by bringing attention to problems he had, it helped prioritize friction from switching. Now that he has had much fewer issues with daily driving Linux, he found himself wanting to actively avoid going back to windows. Who knows if that would have been the case if he didnt help spotlight Linux friction points.
i guess thats fine, i just dont wanna support bad peeps
Entertaining, sometimes.
Useful, not really.
It is very click-baitybas many others have said. I can’t expect them to be the most knowledgeable on everything (or anything…) But watching their Linux videos they’ve been releasing have been nothing shy of facepalm after facepalm. Sure, there are a few useful nuggets of info in there but I wouldn’t take anything they say aa gospel.
Its for entertainment purposes and not for in-depth information.
I can get behind them exposing Linux to new users through their channel. But they could do it better.
i dont watch them for info or anything, i just dont want to support them if they’re bad people
Word of advice: Don’t consume YouTube at all if you don’t want to support bad people.
They aren’t without controversy. Toxic workplace allegations, false/inaccurate hardware reviews, and I’m sure there are more controversies I am sure. Linus also seems a little bit Dickish too.
LTT is not a serious tech channel. Its a guy doing anything he can to get views with tech themed content.
This is such a tired take. He gets people enthusiastic about exciting or fun things in tech. Not every tech channel or influencer needs to deep dive analytics or details. Even so, they sometimes do exactly that.
Like him/them or not, they have advanced repairablity, spotlighted unethical behavior, and made useful guides for things like ad-blocking and piracy.
I used to watch them, but overtime they’ve become super corporate with none of the authenticity of the older videos; and also basically everyone I used to watch for has left.
Then there was the whole situation with the sexual harrasment stuff that just put the final nail in the coffin for me.
Every time it appears now in my feed its just so clearly clickbait view slop with no personality. They haven’t done anything like the large-scale projects like they used to in a long time.
Also, their attitude towards Linux has always been unncecessarily hostile; with Linus refusing to respect that he has to learn how to use a different operating system and just treating it like Windows which will naturally lead to instability and crashes.
If you were to treat macOS like Windows the same would happen too.
I would agree with you 6mo ago, but ever since their last Linux challenge, it feels like LTT is full linux-pilled now. Before, they seemed to exclusively compare capabilities vs mainstream OSes, and only focus on where Linux fell short, because realistically, that’s all mainstream gamers care about. But after the last Linux challenge, they all chose to stay with Linux on their personal machines, because they all felt like it was worth any compromises to not have to deal with windows.
As Linus put it, if something doesn’t work in windows it’s because of bugs or lack of money. If something doesn’t work in Linux, it’s because no one in the community has been annoyed enough by it to fix it.
As Luke put it, every time he’s had to fix an issue on Linux, he’s actually enjoyed it because it felt like he was learning about his machine.
Linus recently did a call with Ludwig about the feasibility of non-tech YouTubers using Linux. Ludwig said “I just think it’s better to have more options, so everyone can use the option they want”, which is historically the line Linus goes with, except that he countered with “consider that windows actively uses their status to limit people’s options, does that change your mind?”
Overall, I think the channel still has to be realistic about the general public’s adoption of Linux. They review the latest tech, and if the latest tech is built exclusively for windows, then they have to review it there. But they do seem to be much more critical of window’s enshittification, and openly advocate for people to try Linux in spite of a rocky transition. It’s been refreshing to finally see the self-professed tech nerds actually cross that threshold into owning their hardware. And whether you like it or not, LTT and Pewdiepie are driving orders of magnitude more people to Linux than we are.
Edit: oh and Linus openly declared that It’s the year of the Linux Desktop, telling viewers it is ready for mainstream adoption.
To be fair the last time I saw Linus try linux, he tried to install steam and the package manager removed the entire desktop environment. This was PopOS, and PopOS clarified in the comments that Linus just so happened to be making the video when there was a big bug in their system. So I don’t fault Linus for being a bit put off
It gave him a very visible warning that this will break his system and only to proceed if you know what you’re doing. He pressed yes I know what I’m doing and purged all of the desktop environment packages. You would get the same result on any operating system by disregarding a warning like that.
If you gave a scrolling wall of terminal text to the average PC user and then asked “yes or no”, they will just say “yes”. The point of Linus’s video was “is Linux ready for mainstream”, so his actions were fair imo. Linux users forget how simple using a PC is (or at least was) on Windows and Mac.
You would get the same result on any operating system by disregarding a warning like that.
When does Windows or MacOS allow you to purge your desktop environment? They would simply not install the software. They wouldn’t give you the option to break your PC in the first place
But that should’ve never happened. He did say very clearly that he isn’t going into the challenge as a tech savvy dude but as a naive enter smashing user. That was completely on pop os for even suggesting the option.
As I recall, it was a transient packaging bug that was fixed within an hour of it occurring, well before the video even aired.
The bug should have never made it to production. Pretty unlucky that one of the biggest tech youtubers caught it on video, but still, not the best look for Linux
I’ve been told a thousand times that linux and linux gaming were finally easy before getting in, not in a thousand years would I have thought installing steam would kill my whole linux installation.
Just my two cents. Also I’ve learned that linux people tend to lie through their teeth so I never take them too seriously, the same people that get angry when you criticize linux for difficulty or weirdness will crucify you for installing steam in the exact moment a once in a lifetime bug you couldn’t predict (as a newcomer) kills your os.
They redid that challenge and it went much differently. In fact, Linus may now be a Linux convert.
Honestly, awesome to hear. I need to check out that video
He actually 180d on that. He has become what he once used to hate. Linix users that won’t shut up about linux.
Hes been using for about 3 months, if I remember correctly
And they’ve been pumping out weekly linux videos, I think, so that helps draw attention too
Hmm I always thought Linus did this to try to stress test Linux and other things they review, because you know a tech youtuber would more than likely have no trouble making something happen if they wanted to even if they had to get someone else to do it or it took awhile…the idea is they want to help improve it by trying to make things difficult and if it fails to be difficult then they have succeeded. Same thing with their recent ai pc build video, he’s putting in unfiltered prompting to try to get answers and it half worked, which is pretty good thst this was able to work imo.
harrasment…?
This was also my final nail, especially when they “we investigated ourselves and determined ourselves did nothing wrong” happened.
That’s the usual outcome, even for investigations where there was something bad that happened.
They hire an outside law firm who specializes in this. They do investigations of something that happened years previously, was badly handled so nothing was written down, memories fade, and people leave the job.
The investigators are also biased since they are being paid by management.
The typical result, regardless of the truth, is not finding anything.
Guilty until proven otherwise? I think in civilized society its the other way around, right?
I was expected to post three tweets, two Instagram posts, and two TikToks per day. I was also expected to plan, film, edit, and post two Floatplane exclusives per week. This included wrangling people to be in them when they were also all struggling to get their work done.
[edited for formatting]
This sounds like a normal workload for a full-time social media manager. The article doesn’t provide any details about the sexual harassment allegation.
damn
yeah ill stop watching em
I didn’t see anyone here mention the spat Linus had with Gamers Nexus. That was stupid and ugly and set me against watching any more of his channel. I was never a regular anyways. Jeff Gearling is far better.
Yeah I’ve mostly avoided GN ever since that incident. There was a time when they just objectively reviewed hardware and reported their findings. The LTT debacle was an uncalled-for hit piece in an attempt to drum up drama for views.
It was eye opening to hear Alex’s take in that whole situation. How they did so much damage over qualms they could have addressed to LTT directly. LTT, like any company, has a lot of issues, but that was just so uncalled for.
I have terrible news
God fucking dammit. I swear if you just wait long enough every youtuber is eventually revealed to be a racist misogynist homophobic transphobic pedo
Ug, okay well I’ll just pull that channel out of my rotation. Thanks for the heads up.
I’m sorry my friend. Turns out all tech youtubers kinda suck for some reason.
A former staffer made claims of sexual harassment. It is unclear how substantiated those were, but i guess there was something going on. Since then they made a very heavily publicised effort to do better, but it’s obviously hard to tell from the outside if that resulted in real changes.
I dimly recall liking it back when it was NCIX tech tips. I was also stupider then, however.
I overall like it for entertainment. As far as I can tell, through the years of “scandals”, Linus doesn’t seem like a bad person. Just a person who means well but makes human mistakes sometimes.
