Linus average user/exotic hardware

MaleficWelter · December 2, 2021

I don't know how to feel with Linus bringing these things up whenever he gets a chance to. I understand that the challenge was about gaming on Linux and I am sure it is bad for certain games. And I understand that Linus has no exotic hardware.

The thing that I am bothered by is the way he continues to present these things in his videos.

I will be honest when I heard about the Linux challenge, I had no clue it was a Windows gamer perspective to switching to Linux.

I would love to clip things for easier use, but Linus does not want to allow us to clip his videos (at least that is not an option for me when I check on YouTube) so...

Average user

My first thoughts on Installing Linux:

Mentions "normal user/person" at around 3:24, 3:55, 4:10

I'm learning a lot about the Linux Community...:

Mentions "normal user" at 4:24

I have NOT had a stable Linux experience:

At around 8:10 he gets quite fired up on I believe the average user's thoughts on Linux. And makes a "grumpy old person" face? Is that what Linus is saying the average gamer is? Since "It was never about average user?"

Exotic hardware

My first thoughts on Installing Linux:

At around 5:45 obscure hardware and I think something about Thunderbolt dock

At around 5:54 "very very unusual setup" "quite literally, zero acknowledgement from manufacturer of the fact that Linux exists at all"

Gaming on Linux has been... interesting...:

Around 1:42 super cutting edge and exotic (goes on for a while)

Not average user and not exotic

I am not trying to say that he purposefully said those things or that he never mentioned a gaming only perspective. It did eventually sink in.

Rules for our Linux challenge:

Around 2:11 "..by the way gaming is not the only thing you do.."

Should you stick to Windows for gaming?:

Around 12:29 mentions how he thought Thunderbolt dock would be exotic but it turned out to work just fine. Although apparently his audio mixer is quite exotic.

However, I believe that is what they said he could use on his phone? If I am mistaken by this assumption please correct me.

And he does keep mentioning these things in later videos but I just wish he would be able to see that the average user and exotic hardware sections I presented above could confuse someone.

My final thoughts

Maybe Linus will fault me for not being a devout LTT fan. I do not watch all their content, I pick and choose, so I may have missed a video. The first video in the Linux challenge that I saw was We're switching to Linux. and there may have been other videos beforehand, if so could someone tell me which it is (just to get a clearer picture)? And maybe I will be faulted for watching LMG Clips rather than the WAN show, but I have never watched it and it just is not my thing and I hope I will not be judged too harshly for that.

By watching from that first video, forward, I kept thinking that it was just an average person's perspective, especially with the parts of the videos that I pointed out above. I did eventually catch on to what was going on. It is totally possible that in the first video I saw I missed where he said "This is exclusively a Windows gamer to Linux experience" but maybe other people did not watch that video and based the whole average user/exotic hardware things on that.

I can understand Linus trying to set the record straight but sometimes it feels a bit brutish? And not once has he said, "I'm sorry if it was ever implied in such a way but that is not the case." However, maybe he can't do that, it would make him look weak and would lose viewership if he did or maybe by being that way it sparks more talk, more buzz, which is good for business so he has to do it in that way. It would just be nice if he could go back and look at those clips and think, "could someone have gotten the wrong interpretation?"

And as for my opinion on gaming on Linux? I would like to say I do not have one, but I do not see myself moving on to Linux to play games. I just recently bought some games, some of which, people are saying run better on Linux and other games which don't work very well on Windows 10 but seem to work fine in Linux. If I am being honest with myself, I do not see myself switching over to playing games on Linux, at least not for the first part. Maybe it is just a bias of mine but I feel like a game would not look as good visually on Linux than it would on Windows. However, for the second part, I did pay for my games and if they do not work on Windows or crash a lot but work fine on Linux, I might be tempted to.

tikker · December 2, 2021

15 minutes ago, MaleficWelter said:

It is totally possible that in the first video I saw I missed where he said "This is exclusively a Windows gamer to Linux experience" but maybe other people did not watch that video and based the whole average user/exotic hardware things on that.

That's those people's fault then. The first video tells you in literally the first 10 seconds this is about replacing their Windows PCs with Linux for a month and by 35 seconds in they have said it's their personal rigs that primarily do gaming duty. You can't complain about not understanding parts or context if you skip the first episode(s) and jump in on a random one.

MaleficWelter · December 2, 2021

Could you please tell me what the first video is? I thought it was We're switching to Linux. Which at 10 seconds he does say the challenge is real and they were switching their daily drivers, then mentions last WAN show on Windows. I actually figured he meant that whatever machine he uses to do his work by that statement. At 35 they are talking about punishment for backing out of the challenge, so it must be a different video than the one I thought was first.

Luke did ask, if it was Linus' home machine since Linus mentioned WAN show, but I have no idea if his "daily driver" is one he reserves for business and has other secondary computers. My "daily driver" is not for gaming, that is on an entirely separate machine. I definitely do not expect him to have the same setup, but I would figure he would have a multitude of hardware at home and it could be plausible to have machines that he wants to do separate tasks on.

Next they talked about DLSS on Proton, which feels like a transition into another part. This is at 2 minutes already so I figured I watched the wrong video. If it is this video, I will, of course, watch the rest of it and feel silly about it, haha!

I do suppose, if I had watched every LTT video, I might know the answer to what computers he uses for what and if he does indeed only use one computer at home. That is my bad, I suppose.

Can I ask, to try to understand where you are coming from better. Do you fault Linus for not understanding parts of the message that would uninstall the graphical parts in Pop!_OS and just writing "Yes, do as I say!?"

I ask because to me it sounds like you feel that people should be fully versed in everything related to their entertainment, otherwise they, should be quiet, and if they do not understand something they are automatically at fault. Due to this I am wondering if you also feel that, if a user decided to change their way of life (because to Linus, computers are that) then it is his duty to not skip messages and just pick and choose what he is willing to read and jump the gun and for all intents and purposes end up with "a dead system."

For instance, I personally, do not think Linus should be to blame for this. It happens.

I do find it hard to think who to fault, because you can only go so far to try to prevent a user from nuking their system. I've heard of it happening on other more tightly integrated systems than even Windows/MacOS, then again since PCs enjoy freedoms, it is quite easy to screw up a Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. machine without any effort, but my point is, if there is a way to break a system, the end user will find a way. I do think it is a good thing that Pop!_OS and Debian have pushed their "fix" but I still fully expect people to break their systems, regardless.

I hope none of that sounds harsh. I have a horrible way with words. I use a lot of them in non-nonsensical ways and a lot more that end up coming off as rude or ill-tempered. I assure you that was not my intention, but please let me know if something there was confusing or mean sounding.