I'm getting tired of Linus Tech Tips here...

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#1 Post by **Arnox** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 12:31 am

Recently LTT released a new Linux video after a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdR-bxvQKN8

Don't get me wrong. More Linux publicity is good, but I'm finding myself raising my eyebrows more and more when it comes to Linus' decisions and takes, and this video really just takes the cake.

Before the video even (properly) starts we get an ad for Amazon Luna. A ridiculously huge and greedy company that Linus KNOWS has been ripping off both their employees AND their customers. And Linus doesn't even have the excuse either of being a small creator. He can get sponsors from anywhere now since he has enough pull, and he's accepting sponsorships from Amazon? But what makes this especially tone-deaf is that it's in a video supporting a FOSS project.

"In spite of what your local friendly neighborhood neckbeard may claim, most Linux distros still involve a LOT of manual faffing about to get things working."

Do they, Linus? Do they really? It's not 2005 anymore. And hey, you know what, I'll make things easier for you and pretend MX Linux magically doesn't exist at all. Even with that, the most popular distros like Linux Mint, Fedora, and Ubuntu (or at least, so they claim) are both targeted to novice Linux users. Now, I have my own problems with these distros, it's very true, but one thing I CAN say is that they definitely require less faffing about than trying to wrestle a fresh Windows 11 install down to the ground.

"If Linux gaming is tricky for me..."

It's not tricky. You literally just install Steam, check an option for Steam Play, and you're pretty much ready to go. In the past, you did sort of have to find out which version of Proton to use depending on the game, but I THINK that problem has pretty much been solved now with the latest Proton releases. The only real problems I see for "Little Joey" is getting modern Skyrim/Fallout mods to work (as they often use Windows-only mod managers as a backend) and getting past asinine anticheat solutions. (Little Joey probably shouldn't be playing those kinds of games anyway.)

"When regular people make the great penguin migration, it's going to be on a Steam-powered train."

Look, I'm not going to pretend like Valve hasn't driven a lot of the increase in Linux marketshare recently here. They definitely have. But it's ALSO because Windows is now basically killing itself off and people are now already jumping ship to Linux in ever increasing amounts. No Steam-powered train necessary, although the train is certainly helping a ton, I'll give you that for sure.

"Let's see what the setup process is like."

You can't see what the setup process is like yet because hasn't officially released SteamOS for other devices yet. >_> It's like me asking the MX devs right now what the MX 25 setup process is going to look like exactly.

"I wanna PLAY my games, and my favorite games include Anno 1800 and Tape to Tape, not GRUB boot entry simulator."

... Well, that's fantastic! Because most of the most popular Linux distros don't want that either, Linus! :) Welcome to 2024. Although you certainly can get the full CLI experience with other distros if you want it.

"To Valve's credit, at least it links to the page for the Steam Deck Recovery Image, so... I think we can figure it out."

Wait... So you were just talking about how you don't want to play GRUB boot entry simulator, but you're now okay with going through a somewhat convoluted setup process? To see a Linux distro that is still in testing and development and not ready for public release yet? What?

"We used Rufus to image it to a USB drive."

Just use Ventoy... Why do people keep recommending Rufus nowadays?

"Here's what I'd say is on Valve's to-do list. They need a simple installer... "

Already covered. See above.

"They need out-of-the-box support for a LOT more hardware."

Like... MX Linux/Linux Mint/etc. has?

"And just... One or two more passes of spit and polish."

See above. Already exists.

"Also printer support."

See above about hardware.

"I do believe that they're going to get there though. ESPECIALLY if Microsoft decides they wanna risk their marketshare by forcing their store everyone."

Alright, but as said before, Valve is FAR from the only player in the distro space. I'm sure SteamOS will be a really fun distro to put onto CERTAIN PCs, but it's not going to be a full phat Windows replacement. If anything else, the Arch Linux base of (modern) SteamOS and the fact that it's an immutable distro will make it worse than many other distros for actual hybrid gaming and productivity use or especially just plain old productivity use, period.

#2 Post by **j2mcgreg** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 7:54 am

Don't lose sight of the fact that LTT makes his living as a schill for whoever his current sponsors are.

#3 Post by **siamhie** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 11:27 am

"When regular people make the great penguin migration, it's going to be on a Steam-powered train."

What does that even mean? All Roku products runs on the Roku OS that uses the Linux kernel as does LG's webOS and Samsung's Tizen.
Does that make those consumer's part of the "great penguin migration" also?

This comment from his first gaming experience in Linux is so true as he tends to break things a lot.

Linux HATES Me – Daily Driver Challenge Pt.1 Nov 9th 2021
@rezaka116 3 years ago
Of all the things Linus is able to drop, i never expected that he would drop and entire linux distro.

#4 Post by **DukeComposed** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 12:39 pm

j2mcgreg wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 7:54 am Don't lose sight of the fact that LTT makes his living as a schill for whoever his current sponsors are.

And the best thing LTT can ever do is create engagement. A bad take is just as effective as a good one in engaging viewers and getting clicks and comments. Maybe even better.

siamhie wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 11:27 am
"When regular people make the great penguin migration, it's going to be on a Steam-powered train."
What does that even mean? All Roku products runs on the Roku OS that uses the Linux kernel as does LG's webOS and Samsung's Tizen.
Does that make those consumer's part of the "great penguin migration" also?

I bought a new TV several years ago, and I'm the sort of person who reads the user's manual. Sure enough in the back section was a printed copy of the GNU Public License, included with the television's documentation because it used the Linux kernel in some capacity. There are a lot of people with Linux-enabled televisions, and with Android smartphones, and I don't think those people who depend on Linux every day count, simply because those use cases don't fit the conventional demarcation of an informed person consciously stating "I am going to start using Linux today."

In the same regard there are plenty of people using Apple gear out there who wouldn't consider themselves BSD users, even though macOS is based on it. In a lot of ways it's a philosophical riddle we could discuss for ages: When is a Linux user not a Linux user? Personally I'd rather deny Linus and his content farming operations all the oxygen debating that riddle might give them. It's nothing personal. I just don't care for the channel and a lot of its output. The big guy's OK though. The one with the kind of squinty expression who actually knows what he's doing? He's alright.

siamhie wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 11:27 am This comment from his first gaming experience in Linux is so true as he tends to break things a lot.

In a similar vein, one hallmark of poor Linux journalism (and I use that word loosely) was the time TechTV bigwig Leo Laporte installed Ubuntu on a livestream and instantly broke it by blindly following the chat's suggestions to (if I recall) uninstall the Unity DE and run "apt-get dist-upgrade" to a different release. This led him to famously dismiss Linux as good only for computer enthusiasts, people who like to tinker with their systems, and children.

#5 Post by **Adrian** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 12:42 pm

siamhie wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 11:27 am
"When regular people make the great penguin migration, it's going to be on a Steam-powered train."
What does that even mean? All Roku products runs on the Roku OS that uses the Linux kernel as does LG's webOS and Samsung's Tizen.
Does that make those consumer's part of the "great penguin migration" also?

I'm not sure what's the definition of "regular people" most of the people I know (except for people here in the forum) don't go changing the OSes on their computers. If that's the definition of the "regular people" yes, Linux is not for then, but then again, if they get a Chromebook they might be perfectly fine with that, actually I would not dare recommending Windows to "regular people" either. People don't use OSes, people use applications and most are fine using just the browser and many don't even know what that is "what do you mean start the browser? Is that blue swirly icon? " -- do you want those people to go install Linux, or even Windows? Those people should use a Chromebook or maybe a tablet (which could very well run Android, so Linux too)

#6 Post by **dings** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 1:19 pm

There are more and more useless Linux videos on YouTube.

#7 Post by **FullScale4Me** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 2:46 pm

dings wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 1:19 pm There are more and more useless Linux videos on YouTube.

One has to be selective as there's only so much time for online tasks........wait, I'm retired...... but I'm still going with selective.

The ones I will NOT watch more than one of: speech bot reading a script, speed racer mouser clicking randomly, fuzzy/shakey phone videos, and titles in English but the video is NOT.

There are a few content creators that have great educational & Linux news value. MX has a list of self-made (by our developers) MX Linux videos too. YouTube channel links Jerry3904, dolphin_oracle and m_pav

If anyone is curious I can make a list and post it. Alternatively, you can search YouTube "Linux -kali -Kali" - that last bit twice filters a LOT of the Kali "noise" in the search. I set a filter on the current month and sorted by view count. The latter to shove the lesser viewed out of my initial view. But there is gold at the end of the list! I've found a LOT of quality smaller channels there.

#8 Post by **FullScale4Me** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 6:14 pm

#9 Post by **siamhie** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 6:29 pm

FullScale4Me wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 6:14 pm Someone asked off forum so here's my somewhat complete list. I'm NOT a gamer or developer by any means nor do I have a leaning toward security (other than Rob B's videos) related topics. Also left out are a few not really Linux core content.

ExplainingComputers - Dr. Christopher Barnatt https://www.youtube.com/@ExplainingComputers

Christopher and Stanley the Knife for the win. A lot of his content isn't in my wheelhouse but that doesn't stop me from tuning into the videos he publishes.

#10 Post by **BV206** » Mon Jan 06, 2025 6:50 pm

dings wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 1:19 pm There are more and more useless Linux videos on YouTube.

It's not just a Linux problem. I have a couple other technical type hobbies and probably 90% of the youtube vidoes about them are BS made by "content creators" and "influencers" and all they know is what they learned from other videos made by other "content creators" and "influencers" that don't know S.

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