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the interessting thing with linus is that he 1. plays the non tech person and 2. has pretty bad luck with linux fetures that are broken or bugs because he stumbles over them to 120%.
I also like the contrast between Linus and Luke because Luke drives Mint on his Laptop and cachy os on something other and he has very few problems.
Luke has had problems he mentions on the WAN show. But they two really arent comparable because Luke's use case is completely different hes much closer to the average person. He only uses a web browser and some light gaming.
Average person?
In talking computer literacy, he is easily within the 1 percent of the 1 percent.
Linus has a skill for messing things up with Linux
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.
LTT isn't known for being bright either.
The main draw of his channel is that he has no idea what he's doing.
Like his budget builds that rely on buying parts later so they aren't included in the price. Or that he stands on the cases to close them.
It's just about watching a monkey play with tech.
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.
Probably dropped it
It's on purpose.
Iβm borderline Linux illiterate and have been using Pop as my daily driver for years without problems.
I think Iβve had to troubleshoot a major issue exactly one time and that was easy.
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.
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
What do you mean it's possible for a multi millionaire ceo with a mansion and a private jet to lose touch and not want to change? Preposterous.
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).
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.
Linus: Now, I want to give Linux the fairest chance possible - That's why I'm going to fresh install it blind during a 10,000 person LAN party, in the worst networking nightmare scenario possible
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
I don't really get it either. I used gnome once and needed multiple extensions to get functionality that is the default of KDE
Same. However, if you don't need that functionality it's solid. Just definitely not for me.
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.
There are dozens of us
I really like cosmic actually.
Pop_OS! is fine, even if COSMIC is unrefined. It will get there eventually. Comparing it to Windows is libel.
I doubt people with private jets use computers. Especially privately. Linux even less so.
Wut popos is pretty good got it on all other family members computors
Linus managed to uninstall his desktop environment by installing Steam because there was an issue with deps on the package and he didn't really look at the list of packages that would be uninstalled either.
And now he's doing another Linux challenge and he picked Pop again. Which is now using COSMIC which is in Alpha stage at the moment, so a recipe for more issues lol
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 β regarding a semi-popular, commercially-backed distro commonly advertised as noob-friendly β 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?
Yes, encountered a bunch of cosmic related bugs.
What did he do this time?
He chooses pop over and over again at the worst times. The beta of cosmic was buggy for his use. And he installed it in the middle of a lanparty no less. That said. He eventually switched to mint same as Luke I think. Luke who has also been using, by the way. And he and Luke have had pretty positive things to say this time. Between windows actively going to shit and Linux continuing to chug along and improve.
homerQuietEveryoneHesAboutToDoSomethingStupid.jpg
What is supposedly wrong with my operating system?
A YouTuber entered a command, it warned him it would delete system files. He said yes and concluded Linux was flawed.
The joke is that if you're that guy then even Pop won't work for you.