LTT Enterprise and Networking content

BudgetForNow · February 26, 2016

keep the server videos! in my personal opinion i think there great. networking is one of my favorite hobbies.

WaterproofBeanie · February 26, 2016

8 hours ago, BudgetForNow said:

keep the server videos! in my personal opinion i think there great. networking is one of my favorite hobbies.

That's not the issue. We all agree that the server videos are entertaining and fun - its just the misinformation being spread through them. When server technicians like someone earlier in the thread watch these videos to see how their clients screwed up that is an issue. Making this information accessible is good, as long as it isn't blatantly wrong.

Deoros · February 26, 2016

On 2/23/2016 at 10:41 AM, .:MARK:. said:

So I have noticed that for several months, there have been many LTT videos that are related to enterprise grade networking and servers. And after watching most of them and seeing the community response, I would like to ask Linus to stop making videos like these for the time being.

As I'm sure most are aware the channel has a wide variety of content, and networking and server content is welcome, but unfortunately it is mostly poorly executed.

I have a few issues to point out first, before I suggest possible ways of improving the content.

Stop the click-bait video titles. As shown by some of the responses from viewers on the forum (which I might add, is a small percentage of viewers in total), the titles are misleading and sometimes just silly.

Stop the condescending attitude on follow-up videos where you tell people who criticize you, that they are wrong. It is likely that if a video is badly received, you had something to do with it, not your viewers.
To those who do possess the knowledge of the subject, you sound like a prick (sorry). And you are in a way, suppressing the viewers opinions.

Stop doing videos on stuff you really don't know. This is less of a problem to me, because it's more the presentation format that's wrong here. It's not bad to not know something, but don't present in an instructional format.
A way around this is to document experiences with a device, or system. A video on how YOU go about things, not how TO go about things.

My ideas

You seem interested in enterprise gear, but before you inadvertently mislead people into buying stuff and driving up return rates because people don't know how to use it, perhaps build a solid grounding on which to build on.

I would suggest a new series of videos which revolve around a rack. An initial video where you look for a cheap used rack and with (proper) prior research, explain the jargon and what to look for.
Then (with proper prior research) some affordable, maybe even used UPSs, where you again explain the jargon and what to look for. Show the viewer how to test the batteries to see if they work OK. Talk about PDUs too.

When you eventually get to servers, talk about virtualisation, and all of the open-source software you can deploy.

You also have a forum of people to consult, and I can personally say that some of the moderators on here are very skilled with servers and networking, and I'm sure they would help you if you asked them.

And honestly you get what I'm saying from here.

TL;DR Do proper prior research and learn before you instruct. No more 25km WiFi! and 10Gbit local network! Which are either factually wrong or give the wrong idea of a proper implementation.

I thought the WiFi video was cool. How he implements the WiFi is up to him.

LogicalDrm · February 26, 2016

15 hours ago, LinusTech said:

This is the only list I can find with any specific criticisms, so I guess I'll pick it out of the pack.

I find it bit sad that you quote that post just because it's only one with list form of text. That post was just listing of things I find troubling in your content. It was to give examples to another member who asked about my opinions. It WAS NOT intended as direct feedback or criticism. I would use more specific terms and examples when I write such things.

15 hours ago, LinusTech said:

1. This is the kind of leaping to conclusions that makes me just not feel like responding to these "holier than thou" posts.. but I'll do it anyway. The power plugs for those UPSes are hardwired, and while I am perfectly capable of buying a duplex receptacle at Home Depot and swapping it out, it's a little outside my comfort zone since I've only done it a couple of times, and an adapter was a faster/cheaper option than bringing in an electrician in this case. Not only that, but as any server power expert would know, my servers - each hooked up to an individual UPS for longer run time - only draw about 250-550W under full load.. That's hardly going to be a problem for the adapter.

My issue was with you using adater on adapter (as I understood it). Rather than getting one correct adapter.

15 hours ago, LinusTech said:

2. I guess you're right. We should just use USB hard drives connected to the editing stations.. or..? Most of the "advice" we've gotten about this stuff has been completely irrelevant because of costs (If I had a dollar for everyone who told us to do our backups to the cloud, maybe I could afford it) or technical reasons, and while we did have the scare with Whonnock - the timing of which was extremely unfortunate because I had a full system backup about 30% done when the RAID card crapped itself. We've grown extremely quickly over the last few years, and a solution that works great one day stops working as well the next. Not only that, but we didn't have any money and basically had to use whatever we could find lying around or that a sponsor would provide in the past. We're only now getting to the point where we can afford to do things "properly" with a multi-terabyte offsite backup.

As I said in first sentence of quotes post. Hardware isn't issue anymore. It stopped to be issue after you went from WD Greens to WD Reds for backups. It also stopped to being issue for workstation hw after Whole Room builds. What I meant was that you didn't have active backup plan out sooner. And didn't have backups for WIP stuff original files.

15 hours ago, LinusTech said:

3. Hard to address "I won't even touch".. but I'll try. Whole Room was always structured as a highly experimental vlog rather than a guide, and we ended up discovering and explaining the issues that prevented it from working correctly well enough that the only person (to my knowledge) who has ever tried to create anything similar managed to it successfully. Mission accomplished, I guess. As for the Mineral Oil PC, I can't really imagine what the issue is there.. We literally used a kit.

If you like, I can watch both series through and list things I dislike in them. But in all I don't really approve some working methods and lack of proper planning.

15 hours ago, LinusTech said:

4. More assumptions. This time about why the motherboards were dying. I can tell you it has nothing to do with what most people think was killing them. Seems to have been related to incorrect mounting pressure (for some reason) on the CPU cooler I was using. Has nothing to do with cutting a small piece of plastic off the speakers (seriously.. can't believe how many people thought that was an issue) or cutting the CPU cooler's backplate (this was covered with 2 layers of electrician's tape to prevent shorting - and it wasn't penetrated, which I can easily check after the fact).

Again. Modding wasn't issue. Issue was that you were too impatient to wait for proper mounting hardware. Or plan ahead and check for socket compatibility. Small things really.

15 hours ago, LinusTech said:

This'll be my final word on this cuz I've got other stuff to do today.

Maybe biggest issue atm I have with your vlog/guide style content is, that you don't make difference when people should be following your instructions or see it as vlog. I mean people DO know when Berkel is messing around as Nicky V. But they don't see subtle differences when you are joking and being serious about how to do something.

As pointed out earlier. Using "How to..." as title means its guide and people should take it seriously. This obvious causes problems when you aren't being completely serious about work at hand being practical. I've compared you to UK TopGear with Clarkson & co. You should really take their style more in. When they say "How hard can it be?" people know its just fooling around and no one should try it themselves. You could start those style of videos with something like:

Quote

We see it all the time on internet how you can use old server grade hardware to improve your gaming PC. Question is; Is it practical and should you? Well, we did the job for you and tried it ourselves.

This is my final post to this thread. Unless Linus decides to apologize.