Idk, I have a lot of criticism regarding the first video and regarding WAN Show comments from Linus.
I agree on the SEO thing and would go much further to say that there is no real difference between Linux distros. There are customizations that you can make on all of them and swap components in it. The easiest thing is to do is to distro hop if you want to change parts and have someone else support your system (distro devs, with the updates for new versions of the software). But those changes you can do yourself, with patience.
And this is coming from someone who hates distro hopping and has for a few years now, first because I distro hopped a lot in my early years of using Linux and second, because I’m tired of restarting everything from scratch on a fresh installation. And I’m talking about setting up my environment and looking for the packages I use and want (not all distros have them, or if they do, they have different names in the repo). In fact, I took this annoyance so far, that last time I distro hopped, I went with a setup that I can emulate on any distro by just moving my config files, so whatever I use, everything stays the same.
As for Linus… his review is really biased to be honest. It’s understandable that a user who doesn’t know much about computers would install Linux and expect everything to work, but Linus knows better then this. He knew what he was getting into and it’s not like this is his first Linux experience, just that it’s the first time he tried running it as his daily driver. I applaud him for that and for taking the jump (but I’m “toxic,” I don’t really care what other people use, everyone should stick to what they know if they can, or use whatever is available to them if they can’t).
When I first heard Luke talking about issues with multi-monitor setup, I could swear that was a Cinnamon issue. I never seen multi-monitor setups acts that way and I went through a few dozen on different distros for people who daily drive Linux and it never happened. Fedora GNOME Shell (both Wayland and Xorg)? Fine. Ubuntu Unity 7? Fine. Ubuntu GNOME Shell (both Wayland and Xorg)? Fine. Ubuntu Mate? Fine. Kubuntu (Xorg)? A bit sketchy to be honest, but that’s probably something related to Ubuntu. My own setup with Fedora KDE Spin (Xorg)? Fine. Arch with LXQt+KWin (Xorg, also mine)? Fine. Arch KDE (Xorg)? Fine. Manjaro KDE with KWin_Wayland? Absolute trash, multi-monitor didn’t work on it. Obviously KWin_Wayland was and still is experimental, so no fault of its own that I tried multi-monitor and didn’t work. Fedora with Sway (sway is Wayland only)? Fine. Void with Sway? Fine. Void with JWM? Fine. Fedora with JWM? Fine. The list goes on.
Outside of some very rare circumstances, multi-monitor setup works in Linux and so does plug-and-playing monitors. I understand that Luke wanted to keep using what he knows and I applaud him for that, even though I have beef with the Cinnamon DE for the small time that I used it (not to mention Ubuntu and forks of it, I strongly believe LMDE is a step in the right direction).
Talking about something public from the WAN Show:
About Dolphin vs Nautilus that Linus talked about. I am biased towards Dolphin, because I used it extensively, but that’s not because I didn’t try to use Nautilus, but because Nautilus UX is terrible from my perspective. When you start typing the name of the files, it shouldn’t just start applying filters, that’s what CTRL+F or the search bar is for. Dolphin, PCManFM/-Qt and many other FMs got it right, why can’t Nautilus drop that stupid search on typing? Then Linus criticized Dolphin for a “feature” that is lacking in it, which is opening Dolphin as root. Nemo can be opened as root and I find it as a terrible thing, even with all the red bars and warning signs around it. You should not need to use a FM to open files required by root, this should not be allowed. I understand that this is a Linux UX problem and I understand why Linus brought it out. I am not saying this is not a problem, what I’m saying is that his workaround shouldn’t exist and the underlying issue should be resolved. There is no reason for some programs to require root access and in fact, no programs should unless they have something to do with the system. If they cannot install themselves in the /usr/bin path, because the folder is owned by root, then don’t install yourself in /usr/bin, install yourself in a bin folder inside the users’ home directory.
I don’t remember what else he was talking about, something about mounting remote locations I think IIRC, which Dolphin can do. But he kept trashing Dolphin and other programs and he has the audacity of criticizing Linux users for doing the same thing that he did. I say that’s really hypocritical of him. And just because I call him a hypocrite, that doesn’t mean I want people to boo him and criticize him because of my criticism, that’s on you. Don’t attack Linus because you read this comment addressed at his character, that’s a brainlet thing to do.
Regarding him borking his DE. I don’t know how that is even possible, but it kinda shows the dangerous bloat that is happening in Linux. I doubt sway, dwm, jwm and even LXQt and probably XFCE would have crashed when Linus was trying to install Steam. But this should be a lesson for people who do CLI messages addressed at end-users: make them pay attention! Something like:
##########################################
##########################################
### ###
### ###
### WARNING !!! ###
### DRAGONS AHEAD! READ THIS ###
### CAREFULLY ###
### ###
### ###
##########################################
##########################################
This way, you attract attention and remove the verbosity from the package managers output. This way, probably even people like Linus would take his time to read. And keep the messages short. And then, just to make sure, as the user 3 times:
- You may break your system, are you sure you want to do this (y/n)?
- Did you carefully read the message above and understand what you are doing (y/n)?
- If you are sure about this, type: “Yes, do as I say.”
Furthermore, Linus is expecting things to be “intuitive,” but what does intuitive even mean? It’s a term filled with subjectiveness of the past experiences. You always have to read a manual when you are trying to use something you don’t know anything about. If you put an all-life Windows user on a Macbook and he says “it’s not intuitive to use, because I cannot run this .exe file I download from office365” then you would obviously try to correct his mistake and especially his attitude towards how to use a thing he doesn’t know. Linus is approaching Linux just like someone who would try to install an .exe program on an iPhone. Expecting to “know it all” and then get mad because things don’t work as you expect is not a healthy approach to anything in life that you have no knowledge of. And it’s this exact attitude that keeps users from being able to switch to any operating systems and even change life habits for the better.
Again, reiterating what I said above, don’t attack Linus because you read this comment addressed at his character. This is my criticism of him and I do not want anyone to throw shade at him and spam him with messages or even worse. And frankly, that’s not how you change people, people need to want to change.
And again, I couldn’t care less what Linus is using, I can almost guarantee he’ll move back to Windows, because that’s what he knows and is good at, I have no issue with that. I welcome his criticism of the Linux UX, but I also correct what things are invalid, because of fundamental architectural designs of the OS. You don’t have to be a programmer to know you should never need root privileges.
And regarding
I disagree. This is an open forum related to tech discussions. The reason why I love this small community is that we are open to discussing anything, including other youtube channels and different perspectives, or alternatives, in the pursuit of knowledge. I think Wendell can agree that the Level1Techs is not about becoming a brand and making money, but about improving knowledge.
We talk about lots of stuff, including things we see on STH, LTT, HC, GN, HU, Jeff Geerling, Craft Computing, Novaspirit Tech and more that may or may not watch.
but if i’m being honest if I had just done a fresh install of a new OS and saw that message, I would have probably run it just to see what happened and write it off as a learning experience. Obviously, not so good if you had an OS that was fully set up to the way you want 
.
Also most likely wouldn’t have happened on the LTS release of Pop_OS.)