About

Linus Tech Tips is a tech review and showcase channel on YouTube co-created and hosted by Linus Sebastian.

History

The channel was created on November 24th, 2008^[1] by Sebastian as an extension and cheaper alternative to his former employer's channel NCIX Tech Tips, due to its low viewership and high production costs during its initial startup.^[2] His first video was uploaded the next day, which consists the results of his overclocking of an AMD processor. The early days of his channel mostly consisted of unboxing various computer parts and peripherals (examples shown below).

His production company, Linus Media Group, was founded by himself, Luke Lafreniere, Edzel Yago, and Brandon Lee in January of 2013.^[3] Since then, the channel has gained a larger crew and higher quality in video production, along with more variety on content such as PC builds guides, build logs and tech reviews. Despite these changes, they still occasionally make "classic unboxing" and tech overview videos in their daily upload schedule.

^[3]

Besides technology-related videos, they also upload vlogs, such as moving vlogs, construction, and other behind-the-scenes content (examples shown below).

The channel reached 5 million subscribers on January 8th, 2018, which was announced on Twitter that day.

Quick! 246 people unsubscribe and resubscribe so we can screenshot it at exactly 5 million! 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/0jueDlEDB5

— Linus Tech Tips (@LinusTech) January 7, 2018

Notable Series

The WAN Show

The WAN Show (Weekly Analysis & News) is a regular live stream occasionally hosted by Linus Sebastian and Luke Lafreniere, wherein they discuss tech news and give their own opinions on it. The live stream is hosted via Twitch and starts every Friday at 5 PM PST, and is reuploaded on their YouTube channel.^[5] The show also has various errors during the stream (failing intro, late stream times, etc.) The series was first introduced as a "Live Show" on August 31st, 2012, while Luke was first introduced in the show as "Slick" on November 9th, 2012.

The live show was officially renamed to "The WAN Show" on July 12, 2013. As of late December 2017, the WAN show currently has 196 episodes,^[6] with its most viewed episode having 763 thousand views (below, right.)

Handy Tech Under $100

Handy Tech Under $100 is a series of videos that showcast various, useful items that are under the price of $100. The series started on December 15th, 2013, and has 17 episodes as of January 2018.^[7]

HOLY $H!T

HOLY $H!T is a video series consisting of very exaggerated and expensive tech items and peripherals. The first video was uploaded on January 21st, 2016, featuring a 3.84 TB SSD from Samsung and has more than 1.3 million views (shown below, left). The series currently has 24 episodes as of November 2017.^[8]

Scrapyard Wars

Scrapyard Wars is a series wherein Linus, Luke, and other guests (starting in Season 3) build a gaming PC under a specific budget. The first season started on February 14th, 2015 (shown below, left), and ended two weeks after.^[9] As of November 2017, the series has six season and 27 episodes, with the latest season concluded on November 4, 2017 (shown below, right).

Online Presence

The channel has gained a large following, as it currently has over 5 million subscribers.^[1] The show also has social media accounts on Facebook, ^[10] where it has over 570,000 likes, and its Twitter account, which has over 615,000 followers.^[11] It also has its dedicated subreddit,^[12] as well as its own forum site with over 460 thousand members.^[13]

!

Reputation

Before and during the early days of Linus Tech, he created and hosted the NCIX Tech Tips channel, with videos similar to the Linus' own channel. He first appeared in\o the channel on July 24, 2007 (below, left), and officially announced his leave from NCIX on his last video, posted on December 30th, 2015 (below, right) His reason was to concentrate more on his own channel and its content.^[3]

Linus Media Group (LMG) also has two correlated channels: Techquickie, which consists of quick takes and explanations on various technological topics (sample below, left), and Channel Super Fun, which contains other LMG vlogs, pranks, and other extra content (sample below, right).

Besides videos, LMG is also working on a website called Floatplane: a content hosting site that concentrates more on delivering towards the audience, similar and competing sites like YouTube. The website is based on their monthly paid forum subscription "Floatplane Club,"^[14] and has been the topic in numerous WAN Show episodes. Luke announced the website's ongoing construction in the channel on April 21, 2017.

Copyright Claims Controversy

In February 2019, YouTube reportedly introduced changes to Content ID algorithm^[15], leading to a number of tech-related channels on YouTube receiving automated copyright claims on behalf of Linus Media Group. Unlike copyright strikes, copyright claims do not involve penalties for the channel they are filed against with the exception of the revenue for the video the claim was filed against being redirected to the original copyright holder.

Following the automated claims, several YouTube tech channels, including The Linux Gamer^[16] (video now deleted) and Carey Holzman^[17] (shown below), posted videos accusing Linus Media Groups of trying to harm them, with some confusing the copyright claims with copyright strikes.

On February 15th, Linus Sebastian made a post^[18] on LinusTechTips forum clarifying the difference between a copyright strike and a copyright claim and voicing support for derivative content made by the Linus Tech Tips community.

We have noticed a significant uptick in copyright claims in the last couple of weeks, though, with some of them being in really really old content which suggests youtube has made some kind of change to ContentID and we've been trying to figure out how to address it.
We are generally pretty supportive of the creation of derivative works by our community and we want to make sure that they aren't being algorithmically claimed, but this change has caused other issues for us too.

On February 17th, Linus Sebastian held a live stream on YouTube clarifying the issue and asking those affected by the automated claims to reach out to Linus Media Group instead of creating negative reaction videos.^[19]

On February 19th, 2019, Redditor^[20] Feurrado created an appreciation post dedicated to Linus Sebastian on /r/pcmasterrace subreddit. The post gained over 42,000 upvotes in two days. On the next day, Redditor^[21] basil78 created a thread in /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit inquiring about the controversy.

Related Memes

LinusKappa / Troll Linus

LinusKappa / Troll Linus is a graphic emoticon featuring Linus' face in greyscale. Similar to Kappa, this is used to convey trolling and sarcasm. It has become an in-joke within the community and has been referenced multiple times by the channel itself.

Linus Dropping Things

Linus Dropping Things refers to multiple instances wherein Linus (or someone else) accidentally drops tech items during his videos.

Gamers Nexus vs. Linus Tech Tips Billet Labs Review Controversy

Gamers Nexus vs. Linus Tech Tips Billet Labs Review Controversy refers to a public dispute between tech YouTubers Gamers Nexus and Linus Tech Tips. In mid-August 2023, Gamers Nexus posted a YouTube video criticizing Linus Tech Tips (LTT) and accusing his company Linus Media Group (LMG) of forgoing proper reviewing practices due to time crunches and business partnerships. Gamers Nexus drew attention to Linus's review of a prototype by Billet Labs in which Linus reportedly used the wrong equipment to test the product and subsequently sold off the one-of-a-kind prototype against the company's wishes. The controversy garnered significant attention online, with many criticizing LTT and making memes about the drama.

Various Videos

Search Interest

References