Linus Gabriel Sebastian & Linus Media Group / Linus Tech Tips - Narcissistic corporate shill YouTuber driving his media empire into the ground. KILL COUNT: 2

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I'm late to this but it was the Alienware Area 51m. Dell promised upgradable GPU modules, and indeed the system had removable GPUs, but they never made them beyond the 2080. The CPU was a standard desktop socket so you could swap out and upgrade that up to the socket's limit (it was Intel so it was only that current generation, 9000 series) but it worked pretty well. If they had actually made 3000 series gpus for it I'd still be using mine now for more than just work and storage. It does inherently have a longer lifespan than any other laptop I've ever owned though since every part in it is swappable, just not necessarily upgradable.
The one I recall was from MSI, I think it may have been the GT80. They didn't make cards past the GTX900 series (which is what the laptops started on). I didn't know Alienware also tried this. I think the MSI didn't allow for a CPU upgrade.

That being said, if I had the money and they were still being made I would so be looking in to these types of laptops.
 
I don't hate Linus the way some here seem to. But then I also don't watch his videos very often. What I do watch from time to time is Level 1 Techs. Both their news round up and Wendell's various project videos. Reason I mention it is because he just did a NAS build video (legitimately interesting btw, not some generic How To) and it struck me that in some ways he's the complete opposite of Linus. Specifically Linus will slip with a screwdriver and make a big moment out of it... and Wendell says "this PCI network card wouldn't quite fit in the case so here's me cutting a bit of it off with a bandsaw" like it's a natural thing to do. Which for Wendell, tbh, it kind of is.

I've come to love Wendell's inept but sincere attempts at humour. Like watching a bear trying to change a fuse. Compared to Linus's slicker and more fake humour.

Anyway, was just watching the NAS video and the contrast was so striking it made me want to post.

It's not really the point of the post but fwiw, this is the video:
 
The one I recall was from MSI, I think it may have been the GT80. They didn't make cards past the GTX900 series (which is what the laptops started on). I didn't know Alienware also tried this. I think the MSI didn't allow for a CPU upgrade.
It was a new standard that didn't go anywhere, it was called MXM - Mobile PCI Express Module. Dell and MSI weren't the only ones doing it, it was a push for the laptop segment that I guess flatlined because people want thin laptops that look Apple:ish. You could probably get a non-MSI/Dell MXM card and slot it in.
 
Dell actually used their own, "new" format called DGFF which is why there were never any other cards available outside of the 3 or 4 that they actually produced. It's a real shame because the A51m was a genuine desktop replacement. They didn't want to cannabilize their other "thin and light" (lol, no such thing really for aw but anyway) laptops, particularly the newly designed m17x that came out a year or two later.
 
My favorite Linus videos are where they talk about/work on the servers. Mainly because their language isn't as technical so I can kinda figure out wtf is going on. Which when you consider how often they are fucking wrong isn't as great of a thing as i thought it was.
 
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My favorite Linus videos are where they talk about/work on the servers.
I feel the opposite way. Unfortunately a lot of server hardware gets sent to Linus, where the coverage is garbage because neither Linus nor his staff have any idea how or why any of it is the way it is. I'd rather Kioxia et all send their datacentre stuff to Wendell, who knows how to use it, and can put together an accurate (if far less flashy) presentation of it. I'd also rather keyboard manufacturers send their autistic junk to Linus, who knows how to advertise the 1000th iteration of cloned Cherry switches, than to Wendell, who resorts to waving it around over his head going "wooOOoo" as if there is any need for another keyboard when the MX Keys exists.
 
I feel the opposite way. Unfortunately a lot of server hardware gets sent to Linus, where the coverage is garbage because neither Linus nor his staff have any idea how or why any of it is the way it is. I'd rather Kioxia et all send their datacentre stuff to Wendell, who knows how to use it, and can put together an accurate (if far less flashy) presentation of it. I'd also rather keyboard manufacturers send their autistic junk to Linus, who knows how to advertise the 1000th iteration of cloned Cherry switches, than to Wendell, who resorts to waving it around over his head going "wooOOoo" as if there is any need for another keyboard when the MX Keys exists.
It is an unfortunate outcome of Linus being the tech top dog on Youtube. They keep sending Linus B2B server hardware and watch as all he can do is plug it in and run Cenebench on it. Numbers go fast power draw big, is all he can really say and his writers have to come up with the banter dialog to get to the ad run time limit. That one video where they had a server that NASA uses and all they did was do a benchmark and show a still image of what it was used for and mention the TDP and Watts from the wall. It could have been and interesting video if they got someone in to demo what they use the server for. But all we got was a overly long tear down with """"banter""""". Some may argue, that they can't do that because NDA's and all that. But server company's have demos they show to other businesses as a pitch. It makes any server hardware video he has all look the same and not worth watching after 2 of them.
 
I don't hate Linus the way some here seem to. But then I also don't watch his videos very often. What I do watch from time to time is Level 1 Techs.

Other's said it better, but I don't "hate" Linus either. I just think of him a a fuck-up that got lucky. He has a proficiency for flair and flash, but he is just so damn basic in any kind of analysis. One needs to go elsewhere for in-depth coverage. I think he knows that, and that is why he wants to create LTT Labs. Even with Andy leading the labs, I think Linus's daily involvement as a fuck-up in every aspect of LMG will be the anchor that will weigh down the Labs, and it will continue to struggle to find it's voice. I have no inclination to believe that Linus will ensure LTT Labs will be a separate entity from his kid show. It has been a year since the initial announcement and I have seen no output from the Labs.
 
It is an unfortunate outcome of Linus being the tech top dog on Youtube. They keep sending Linus B2B server hardware and watch as all he can do is plug it in and run Cenebench on it. Numbers go fast power draw big, is all he can really say and his writers have to come up with the banter dialog to get to the ad run time limit. That one video where they had a server that NASA uses and all they did was do a benchmark and show a still image of what it was used for and mention the TDP and Watts from the wall. It could have been and interesting video if they got someone in to demo what they use the server for. But all we got was a overly long tear down with """"banter""""". Some may argue, that they can't do that because NDA's and all that. But server company's have demos they show to other businesses as a pitch. It makes any server hardware video he has all look the same and not worth watching after 2 of them.
Do they have a gaming division? Feels like reviews and gaming news would be something that they could reasonably segue into. Maybe recruit some existing YouTubers who do pop-science and bring them into the fold. It's unfortunate but some niches really just don't have room to grow forever in them. There are natural limits to how much content you can produce on certain topics like chips and ram and plugging in cards. They could do more partnerships with people like iJustine. I remember the video editing showdown between her and his guy as a pretty fun video. Diversity, if it's not in the racial and sexual quotas sense, can actually be a good thing.
 
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I don't hate linus. I just the direction the channel has taken in many degrees. From clickbait thumbnails and titles, to just much of the content.

Yes, powerful servers are cool. But you've seen them one, you've seen them all. They just get faster under the hood, sleeker on the outside; and sometimes end up looking Gamer-ish. That's it.

What originally drove me to LTT wasn't the bog standard shit. It was the wacky stuff. Whole Room Water Cooling is a hilarious concept and it worked well enough until it didn't. But to see just the idea done? That was awesome.

Now some might ask "well, shouldn't you be excited to see Whole Home Water Cooling with his pool?

Yes, I am excited; because even with the modern crappy editing, it's still going to have the wacky insane concept stuff I like.

Mad ideas are great because who knows? Maybe it's not been done before and it'll prove to be a good idea? Or just satisfy the want of knowledge with a solid "well that was a bad idea".

Scrapyard Wars was another great one. Granted, ofcourse it would be more difficult because they got so big; but there's potential there still. Immediate thought might be as a game show; but the point is that there's still potential in the series done in the right way. Not half assed like I've just done.

If they'd pull back on the inane bs they put in around the great stuff; they'd be better off for it.

Instead it's just money money money, like these things always go. And its especially frustrating to know that the money they're chasing is going on incredible tripe.
 
It has been a year since the initial announcement and I have seen no output from the Labs.
This is something that puzzled me for a while. I casually wached Linus about 2020-2022, did catch some Wan shows too. Something I noticed in that period was how he announced things YEARS in advance.

Sure, the Wan show is a diff audience than the mainstream, fine, makes sense. Then he started to announce things in the LTT videos, not even his side channels. He talked about that fucking screwdriver, Labs, etc... for YEARS before these things actually started.

I am not a marketing expert. BUT. If you announce something, I am expecting it to release within a few weeks, a few months maximum (at least to pre-order). I have never seen any serious company wait that long.

Maybe it is just incompetence and they would miss their own deadlines by that much. But I feel it's that no one can say no to Linus and they think it does not do any harm. Personally, it did annoy me as a viewer. Sure, I would never ever buy his overpriced merch, but at least it was there. At least that fucking water bottle was a physical object in a warehouse somewhere. Being advertised something that does not even exist feels in some ways mortifying. Does he expect his viewers to follow him as lapdogs waiting for his merch for literal years, as if no one has better things to do? And sure, let me wait for one year to buy a screwdriver or backpack, not like those are items that someone may need more urgently!
 
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I don't hate Linus; I just hate his omnipresence. I'm sick of seeing that weedy Canuck faggot's face everywhere on YouTube, and seeing his simps clog up every single fucking comment section in every single YouTube video that's even tangentially related to tech.

When his dickriders started showing up in the MCM 15th Anniversary video comments feed a while back, that was the final straw. All because Marty built his own file server out of a Hackintosh (btw Marty's computer skills most likely shit all over Linus's, even though Marty spends most of his time fucking around with cars and audio engineering rather than computer hardware).
 
Scrapyard Wars was another great one. Granted, ofcourse it would be more difficult because they got so big; but there's potential there still. Immediate thought might be as a game show; but the point is that there's still potential in the series done in the right way. Not half assed like I've just done.
Scrapyard Wars didn't get too big, Linus did. IIRC Luke only got recognised once, while Linus got recognised at half the stores he went to, because he apparently used to be on billboards as the face of some local electronics store. I'm sure Scrapyard Wars would have been fine if they'd just switched to other participants, or continued on the "teams" concept one of the runs had, and just had the less recognisable person do the shopping.
 
Yeah, I didn't think it always needed to be Linus v Luke, especially since Linus being Linus was a problem on multiple occasions. No reason he couldn't have been a judge rather than a participant. Seeing how other people with different skills/experience tackle different problems would have been a welcome addition
 
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Agreed. Scrapyard Wars is a good enough concept on its own, it would work even with the less known and "loved" personalities. For all Linus talked about stepping back, he never used the more reliable formats to truly test out how it would work.

Scrapyard Wars is also a series where I don't mind Linus showing off how wealthy he is (e.g. when he considered buying a private flight to buy a cheaper part). Although I may be in the minority because some people are butthurt in the comments when he argues to bring down the price.

Thinking about it, the fact that they cannot do "normal" scrapyard wars multiple times, with different teams, is another example of how much Linus always has to overcomplicate things! They always tried to change it up, changing location, adding guests, etc.. People tune in for decades, multiple times a week, for the same quiz show / reality shows. If the premise is good enough, and the participants have a tiny bit of charisma, it will work. But no, Linus knows best and unless they can do the next one on Mars, his viewers would very much rather watch unboxing of another expensive server! Because that is exciting!
 
Scrapyard Wars didn't get too big, Linus did. IIRC Luke only got recognised once, while Linus got recognised at half the stores he went to, because he apparently used to be on billboards as the face of some local electronics store. I'm sure Scrapyard Wars would have been fine if they'd just switched to other participants, or continued on the "teams" concept one of the runs had, and just had the less recognisable person do the shopping.
Yeah, I meant to say Linus & LTT got too big. That's on me for poorly wording that sentence.
 
some people are butthurt in the comments when he argues to bring down the price.
I’m kind of in this camp, tbh. I just find it incredibly crass when someone for whom slightly overpaying for an item makes absolutely zero difference will haggle over single dollars with someone for whom getting slightly overpaid makes a huge difference. Travelling in Asia, I constantly get annoyed when I see obviously well off western tourists shamelessly trying to make impoverished locals operate at a loss in bazaars, just because they think haggling is fun. Just pay the asking price, it makes zero difference to you but it means a nice meal for the whole family to the seller. I’ve actually Karened a few of them, and to their credit they did seem to understand what I was saying and felt bad about what they did.

Linus in particular would use especially shameless haggling techniques, like inviting the seller to travel to him, and then insisting on a significant price cut or no deal after they’ve made that effort. Noblesse oblige, people!
 
Well Unfortunately I do not like the dude. The fucker is a hypocrite. Anyone who stands with the peaceful protests as he did when he was spouting his political ideology can go and fuck themselves. You do not hear anything now about racial issues now. The reason why is that it is not fashionable as well as THEY WERE WRONG.

The reality of 500 billion dollars of damage to personal/business property as well as COUNTLESS DEATHS because you ARE WHITE.... YOU do not get ANY take backs from me.


He is a IT&T certified ASSHOLE just spouting shit to get his WOKE POINTS checked at the time.

He chose a side. The Woke side. And so I am against him. He can spout off is fancy car and his money.

Well Some of us have money too and we do not forget about his actions and lip service back in 2020 going forward.
 
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