Linus has a skill for messing things up with Linux
cOnTeNt
You are giving him to much credit of you think he’s just pretending to break things.
It’s a little crazy to me how the most popular tech youtuber struggles so much with Linux, meanwhile fucking PewDiePie, who’s not known for being particularly bright, has been making videos about Linux and selfhosting and how fun it is to configure his system lol.
The hardest person to convert is a Windows “poweruser”. They have an unfounded confidence in their ability to do things. They think because they know Windows well they should be immediate pros at other OSes as well.
no pewdiepie 1000% messed things up on linux. the difference is he didnt show it in his videos
you do know he was an engineering major?
It’s on purpose.
Naw he’s just the ElectroBOOM of computers. Intentionally does shit wrong to show people how not to do things.
He wishes he were electroboom
This really shouldn’t be a hot take but I think the people here will disagree. “Linus unironically did nothing wrong in his linux challenge video” The linux community really shouldnt act like he was using it wrong because its a terrible look.
No reasonable person can pretend there are no issues with linux. Sure you can get good at using linux and not run into these issues but they still exist and people will still run into them and you shouldnt blame the person.
My issue is the categorization which in turn paints a picture on a lot of OSes. Call it a Pop OS challenge, or debian challenge, etc. In people’s minds there is windows, ios, and everything else is “linux”. Just leaves a bad taste. Just like in your comment you’re broadly painting “linux” issues as if windows or such doesn’t also run into problems at times (especially with windows updates lately).
In the talk show they do, he talked about how even with the issues he loves Pop OS and even mentioned that very argument–that he has problems with Windows too, and at least this way one of those problems isn’t copilot.
This is an extremely bad take.
99% of Linux distros behave the same for the most part. There are outliers, like immutables, or NixOS, but whether you’re using Ubuntu, PopOS, Kubuntu, or Mint, your experience with the “linuxness” of your OS will be mostly identical. I’m not talking about things like “the DE looks different”, or the overall “look and feel”, I’m talking about software compatibility, driver compatibility, etc.
You could, I guess, argue if they should say “we’re testing a Debian based distro” instead of “Linux”, but that’s about it.
As already mentioned, Ubuntu/PopOS/Kubuntu/Mint are maybe the four most identical distros in the entire ecosystem. But your point really does hold true even with less-identical distros.
Currently, I have an Ubuntu Server, an Arch PC, and an old laptop “test machine” running Fedora. These are totally different limbs of the Linux family tree, but things pretty much work the same in all of them. The main difference is the package manager: Apt vs Pacman vs DNF. But like, they’re all doing basically the same thing under the hood: checking your installed software against some repository to see if anything needs an update. The actual workflow is pretty much the same with any of them.
After that it’s pretty much just a question of downloading the desktop environment and software you like. Or finding a distro that comes pre-installed with what you want. To make a gaming analogy: linux distros are like Dark Souls classes: starting stats and equipment, but the starting point doesn’t lock you into your you build in the future.
NixOS is a different beast for sure.
Yes, that was exactly the point I was making.
The “primary” distros would be Arch, Debian, Fedora, and NixOS.
Anything that grew out of those (with NixOS being to young for that yet, I think), is going to run basically identically, and since they all grow from the same kernel, at a fundamental level they also behave similarly.
Like, if you switch from macOS to Windows, you see fundamental differences in how things operate. If you switch from Fedora to Arch, you need to learn the new package manager syntax, but the rest is still Linux.
I’m simplifying, but I think you know what I mean.
The culture of different distros matters. Lots of people had issues with Manjaro because the devs let their certificates expire. Other distros weren’t affected by that.
It’s not a problem that’s going to pop-up during a “let’s use XYZ for ## days” challenge.
It literally did last time Linus tried due to a missing dependency for steam in the PoP!_OS repo.
On the other hand though, Linus isn’t exactly an ‘average user’, having spent most of his life working in the IT industry. I’m not sure it’s completely fair judging him as if he was a random clueless person either.
I don’t think LTT’s approach is bad exactly. I really just take issue with their argument that “there are thousands of ‘switching to Linux’ videos on YouTube, so we don’t need to cover that ground again.” It’s ignoring the fact that, for better or worse, they have the biggest audience and furthest reach in the space. There’s still room for “we’re approaching this like normies would,” but I really think they need to close it up with “if you want to do this, here’s how to do it right.”
Linus installed popOS at a friggin LAN, under pressure, and was rushing to get stuff working then got bent out of shape by comments on protondb about how to get his game to work. His colleagues sat at home, with all the time in the world to figure stuff out and were pleasantly surprised by their experience.
Linux has issues for sure, I run into them daily, but there’s a big difference in giving it a fair shot and saying “could’ve happened on Windows” and making a video as it only happens on Linux. If Linux came on hardware by default, and people had no idea it was Linux, they’d be complaining about their computer, just like people complain about Windows. Linus acts like everything is a Linux issue whenany things are just computer issues you get used to.
There is nothing wrong with installing linux at a LAN. Its quick to install and configure, its actually a layup situation for linux. If Linus had installed it at home he would have had an equally poor experience since the issues were completely out of his control. PopOS shouldnt have labeled Cosmic as production ready and shipped it. Valve should have fixed left4dead2 as its been a known issue for 5 years.
Sure there is: if you’re larping the average Joe.
The big problem is Linus decides to pretend to be some “average user” when he isn’t one, and therefore ends up making absolutely bonkers decisions. It was super obvious in the last video because Linus was the only one participating who had major issues, and the only one participating who pretended to know nothing.
If they actually wanted to give Linux an honest shot and see if they can replace windows on one or more of their computers, the format would be entirely different. I think the format would probably start with a Q&A session with a well known Linux YouTuber like Wendel (who they still appear to have a good working relationship with) where they get the initial “here’s what you need to know and what I recommend for the best experience right now” then a check in call after 24 hours, 72 hours, 1 week and 2 weeks where they touch base, discuss pain points and how to alleviate them. Such a format would give an easy transition as well as great advise for the audience, but still present plenty of opportunity to directly see real world pain points and rough edges but instead of those rough edges being “haha Linux bad” they can instead be “here’s how to overcome them” or “this is an area that needs some developer time, anyone want to dive into improving this?” And maybe if they were really feeling crazy they could offer up some bug bounties for the pain points they find! Because that’s the power of open source is if you have the knowhow you can go in and fix it!
I honestly suspect Linus just doesn’t want to change, and that’s why he keeps failing to actually give Linux a shot. This might be an unpopular opinion here but it’s okay if he doesn’t want to change, but he should not be trying to tear down the Linux community for content in the process
I think this perspective is insane. They should absolutely not approached switching to linux by leveraging expert linux advice through their youtube contacts. Its fine for Linus to have issues switching to linux, most people do and the video wasnt just Linus having issues it was also Luke and Elijah having a good experience. When it comes to switching to linux Linus is an average user, he doesnt know about the system and is going in with little experience. LTT has gotten these pain points fixed and their video did not come off as “haha linux bad” did you watch it?
As a linux user I want linux to be an approachable thing, I would be pissed if it was presented as a thing that required expert consultation from wendel.
Pop_OS! is fine, even if COSMIC is unrefined. It will get there eventually. Comparing it to Windows is libel.
Yes but LTT will define his Linux desktop experience through PopOS which is shipping a very alphaish-betaish DE. A normie will think this how Linux actually is and will never switch. He should have gone with the parent distros or at least a well respected derivative like Bazzite, Cachy, Mint.
LTT will define his Linux desktop experience
I’ll just say LTT is a channel not a person, and the latest “Linux challenge” has three participants each with their own approaches and opinions.
Including one who was super stoked to switch to Linux and actually properly prepared.
I loaded pop os years back for the nvidia support and since i bought hardware from the same manufacturer that supplies system76. Its been fine, no complaints other than the battwry life…to be expected.
I found out that sys76 keeps most its software and drivers only for machines it sells. When i try to install things, i get unknown system. Fyi
I made the mistake of going with Pop_OS for one of my stores workstations. Its been an almost endless amount of frustration with all the stupid shit Pop has done. Is it better then windows? sure, but its down there with arch as a usable OS in anything outside of an LTT video.
Seems a bit of a self report that you’ve never used Arch IMO. I use it on a daily basis on 2 PCs and never have any issues. Arch is as good as the person using it.
I use Arch, btw.
When did I say I never used it? Its just not a good choice unless you really like to configure your Linux. For workstations that my staff (who are not interested in Linux or PCs at all) have to use, I go with things that are stable and easy like mint.
Its just not a good choice unless you really like to configure your Linux.
Yep, you have no clue.
For workstations that my staff (who are not interested in Linux or PCs at all) have to use
Nice Motte & Bailey fallacy retreating from the ridiculous statement that “…its down there with arch as a usable OS…” to try and seem more reasonable now.
Yep, you have no clue.
If I don’t want to fuck with the OS and if setting it up takes more then 15 min then its not a good choice, but please tell me to “get gud” about what I value in an OS. I am sure that is why so many people use arch over other distros, the kind support.
Nice Motte & Bailey fallacy retreating from the ridiculous statement that “…its down there with arch as a usable OS…” to try and seem more reasonable now.
That is why it is not a useable OS, 100% the fact that laypeople have to daily drive it. There was no retreating from me, not at all, I stand by my statement that arch is not a usable OS for workstations. And before you try and say that “for workstations” is some sort of moving the goalposts, I made the statement on arch not being usable in a comment about putting distros on my stores workstations.
There was something that happened a while ago that made all the tech influencers look kinda silly in regards to Linux. I’ll never forget this comment on one of the videos around the kerfuffle. ‘All these computer experts have just been downgraded to Windows influencers.’ It’s so true how they can tell you all the inner workings of a Windows machine and the moment they try Linux their expertise just falls apart.
I have a working hypothesis, the short of which goes something like this:
windows makes one memorise orders of infinite submenus, while linux makes you understand the way it works.
I have a test desktop that I put Pop OS on (when I was testing distros) and it seems fine. I’m not a huge fan of Cosmic so far but its alright.
People love gnome unironically? #kdeftw
There are dozens of us
My first distro was Debian and I loved Gnome so much that I’ve never gotten around to trying anything else despite being on my 3rd distro hop.
I’m an old head and a firm believer in keyboard first computing. And I think an OS’s job is to be invisible until I need it. Gnome get’s out of my way until I summon whatever I need from it with the keyboard. For someone who’s labored under Windows for so long, Gnome is like escaping Plato’s cave.
Try KDE sometime if you are keyboard first. I’ve found it has more keybinding opportunities than gnome had (~5 years ago, so things might be better. Knowing gnome though, I wouldn’t hold my breath 😅)
I like Gnome because it’s very tablet-y by default. Sure, I could make KDE look like that, but who has the time for that?! Plus, not having a desktop is the most effective way to stop me from filling the desktop with unsorted garbage
That’s my biggest gripe with GNOME. They constantly compromise or even remove features to be more touch friendly.
That’s what the people who use it want. They love shit like that because they think it looks cool (fine with me, none of my business what DE people use)
They are the same kind of people that use tablets for work
KDE has a really beauty of a big screen. The tablet mode on my 2 in 1 works well enough but I can’t compare with gnome for obv reasons (I don’t use gnome)
I used to like Gnome before 1.1. It was a while ago though.
I really like cosmic actually.
Been trying cosmic for a few weeks now, cant say its my jam. Got some hardware upgrades to do sooner or later and want to try something new and will install a new OS around then, open to recomendations.
If I might ask, why isn’t it your jam? Is it the layout, missing a specific feature, or something else?
The more recent issues have been fiddly display problems along with multiple instances Proton_GE running at the same time not being reliable as they were in the last version and more broadly it has been issues attempting to get Davinci Resolve to run correctly, but thats going to hopefully be fixed by the hardware upgrades (GPU, switching from an old rx 6700 to a lightly used 3090, there are known compatibility issues with AMD GPUs). Was thinking something Fedora or arch flavored, just for a change of scenery.
as far as desktops go its pretty bad, barebones feature wise and really buggy. There is no way id ever ship that to users without a warning (which is what pop did)
I doubt people with private jets use computers. Especially privately. Linux even less so.
I didn’t watch the second video, but assume it’s just: “Hey, let’s see if it’s any better now, since this is what I used last time, and it’s sold preinstalled on commercial hardware.” I don’t like Pop!, but I also think the people arguing he should be using something else – regarding a semi-popular, commercially-backed distro commonly advertised as noob-friendly – are hitting the copium too hard.
“But he wants to do gaming!” And I never had to install a special version of Windows because I wanted to do digital art. That’s not intentionally making Linux look bad; it’s just not going out of his way to doll it up like a burger in a fast food ad. Plenty of people will want to game but don’t treat it as their entire identity and therefore won’t be looking into “best linux gaming distro 2026 reddit”.
I liked JayzTwoCents’ video because he has an expert walk him through it and chooses Bazzite since he’s doing it specifically to evaluate gaming, not how good he is at using it. For a video where somebody is trying to assess the state of Linux for a normal user new to Linux, I don’t want an expert hovering over them the entire time, and within reason, I want them to pick what appeals to them.
I’m over here having a great time on Endeavour, but I got turned off of Linux for years after trying Ubuntu as a daily driver for several months and running into issues constantly. My actual Linux experience was eerily similar to Linus’ first video (it nuked my entire config twice), and I probably would’ve gone back to Ubuntu as a test if I were doing it for an audience and not for myself.
What happened on Pop! this time, by the way? COSMIC issues?
What did he do this time?
homerQuietEveryoneHesAboutToDoSomethingStupid.jpg
What is supposedly wrong with my operating system?
he installed pop and it shipped cosmic by default with no warning that it was unstable. He had a bad experience for 2 days then switched to another distro.
Nothing, just the national sport of complaining
Caught me off guard with the Linus part. I laughed so much. Lmao
I have personally had a lot of issues with pop os on my laptop (related to power management, waking up the WiFi card, overheating leading to a kernel panic, GPU refusing to go to sleep), which disappeared as soon as I installed Endeavour OS.
This could also say "do you know what how to use a pc? No, Apple, yes, “are you proficient with pcs” yes, Linux, no, windows.
is that windows icon supposed to represent windows in general or only win7?
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Shitting on macOS like that is completely unjustified.
Same for Windows. It’s an opinionated meme.
