Do All LTT Writers Think The Same

Before you is the Linus Tech Tips writing team who contributes to just about every piece of content coming out of Linus Media Group. And today I'm going to be making some statements about tech and they are going to walk to their stance on the floor ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. But do they all agree or disagree the same? Probably not. I'm so ready for the fireworks. Open- source software is always better than closed source proprietary software. Wow, the first one we didn't all uh disagree on. Have you used That was what I was going to say. It's really bad. Yeah, Blender is amazing now, but I got used to Maya, which is amazing, and then you move over to Blender and it's like, what am I even doing here? As someone who's going through the Linux challenge currently with Linus, uh nothing I miss more right now than Adobe. As much as I hate paying for Adobe, Kaden Live is not an alternative to a video editing software. And I think really the issue is that the statement is like always. Yes. And often it isn't. And I think that there it sucks that there has been this like paradigm shift away from the idea of open computing cuz there was a lot of push for that in the '90s and early 2000s. And it's kind of becoming more proprietary as we speak, especially with all these companies benefiting from all of the hard work. Yeah. Of the open source community. Yeah. The the always was strong for me as well. One of the pieces of software that I had a bunch of experience with coming from kind of the professional side was people trying to use Open Office or Libra Office. Yeah. Dude, in place of Microsoft Office or I mean even Google Docs and whatnot, that's closed source, too. Yeah. The collaborative features that you get with the closed source systems are miles beyond what you can do with open source. Yeah, I was thinking open office. Celtics is a script writing software. Well, right now is where I insert in the script the segue to our sponsor, Acuity Scheduling. It's a flexible scheduling software that offers calendar management, booking tools, client communication, secure payments, custom branding, and so much more. Use offer code LTT20 to save 20% off your first Acuity Scheduling subscription. Tech reviewers struggle to properly represent the average user. I don't know. I don't know. I want to stay neutral. You stayed neutral. Plof. Why? Because I think that some tech reviewers definitely don't. And I think some tech reviewers probably absolutely do. I think all reviewers on a crunch are going to struggle no matter what. They we don't get the time to really work with whatever item it is. Mainly maybe it's because of embargo. Maybe it's just because we want to get our video out the fastest just like cuz we're competing with everyone else. And you're never going to be able to get a truly representative measure of using a device long term. If I have a product that I'm taking a look at for a weekend or a week or even a month sometimes isn't enough to get a good idea of what that's going to be like using it long term. Yeah. To me, I think that that's like the very crux of the dilemma of being a reviewer. Like what separates a good reviewer? It's like literally the thing you are always striving for is to not just be an authority in the space but to be an authority that can represent those ideas and the audience which is like always going to be at odds because you are always injecting your own perspectives which as an authority as somebody who's knowledgeable is very very different from the average person. The way to show that you are a great reviewer is being able to thread that needle and that's like every single time that we're doing a CPU or a GPU review. That is always the struggle. I think in the end people just need to look at multiple sources. No matter what, never one source. Yeah, you got to find the guy who represents you the best. Ray tracing is pointless for most people. I remember the last time we had a ray tracing conversation. Adam crashed out pretty hard cuz ray tracing is path tracing. Okay. So when they just they just lied the whole time. They lied the whole time. It's like how no it's not okay. So I'm not surprised he's all the way at strongly agree here. I don't think that anyone has seen a substantial visual fidelity benefit at a at a trade-off that is reasonable for the performance. I think that ray tracing makes a lot of sense if you're somebody who's doing rendering work. I think that accelerating rate tracing makes sense if you're somebody who's doing film. I think that as an enhancement to video games and real-time rate tracing, it's worthless. It is a bad avenue. It has been like, "What if we made something really hard to do and just threw computers at the problem and then we charged you $2,000 to get one card that is even remotely good at it." Every innovation Nvidia has done in the past 4 years has been attempts to make to unify ray tracing. My main problem is the pointless aspect of it. I think that one part of ray tracing that a lot of people forget about is reflections. I think lighting we can do really well. We just can't do reflections in games. like just flat out it just is not possible without some kind of trick where you're duplicating the world behind the mirror or whatever. And there's something about at least for me and I honestly think most people when they're watching game footage of like Spider-Man or Battlefield has pretty good reflections when you're watching that footage something about it just looks so much more real. And I'm not even talking about the shadows falling properly or anything. It's it's really the reflections. So nice to watch. Sucks to play. Well, I mean I'm watching the trailers and stuff but I mean it looks great. That's what I'm saying. It's great for rendering. It's great for filmmakers. But I mean, you also don't have to play everything at 4K. You're hung up on pointless. I'm hung up on most people. There you go. I I'm hung up on ray tracing. Yeah. What is that? I mean, I'm I'm kind of on the pointless side as well. I I think that there is definitely a point, especially for people who are trying to show off the capabilities of what an engine's able to do. Ray tracing in photo mode is also like amazing. Yeah, you can get really, really cool screenshots of scenic pictures and you wouldn't be able to do that without the ray tracing. Linux gaming will overtake Windows one day. Linux has a chicken and an egg problem right now where I think it truly is ready for most gamers. The problem is the most popular games don't work on it. How do you convince developers to prioritize developing there if there's no players, right? That chicken and egg situation. I want it to to be very clear. I want Linux to give Microsoft a run for their money. I just can't see it happening, especially with the state of the Linux community. I think they're the biggest turnoff for most people wanting to decide to switch because no matter what you do, it's wrong. No matter what you do, you it's your fault. If anything, I've learned from doing Basite for a month is just don't ask people for help because if you do, you get insulted. You should have read the documentation. Yeah, my bad. documentation. Okay, I'll read 700 pages of documentation. I didn't have to do that with Windows when I grew up. You just click next a bunch of times. Yeah, right. I think that as long as Microsoft is still has like an Xbox gaming division, there will just be too much support for it to ever be fully overtaken, but I'm also pretty neutral because like yeah, Steam Machine is going to be here and um I just think that will overtake someday is kind of too certain for me. I just I don't think that'll happen. And I think if anything they might compete in the same space, but I think eventually we're going to see a lot more Linux- based handhelds. That is a big one from my point of view. Steam Machine, we'll see how well it does trying to bring that type of environment into kind of a console experience, but the Steam Deck has shown pretty definitively that you can get a handheld that works really well running on Linux. I just want to see normies be part of that space cuz like yeah there are normies with Steam Decks but I'd argue it's mostly enthusiasts that have handhelds in general till I can go into Best Buy and buy a Basite box or something right I don't think it's going to be mainstream enough and even then will it be mainstream enough to then overtake Windows I don't know like compete sure but I don't know about overtake the most profitable section of gaming is already on Linux mobile phones mobile phones heard true cloud gaming is still increasing in growth. It's slowed down a lot, but once they can sort out gaming without having to go through expensive Windows licensing, we're going to see a larger transition. I think that as people get priced out of the hobby of of computing, we're going to see more centralization and that's going to be built on the backbone of Linux. Like I said, I want it to happen. I'm very pro it happening. It's going to be really tough. They've got a big uphill battle. PC gaming is just plain better than console gaming. surprised you guys disagree. I think console gaming is easier and works more often. I think that when it comes to the experience that you're going to have, also on top of that, the library access you're going to have and sales also upgradeability. I can take a computer from, you know, I can make the PC of the Thesius and slowly upgrade. I can't do that with a, you know, Xbox or something. I had a lot less headaches in my life gaming when I just gamed on an Xbox. Yeah, I will fully agree that PC gaming unlocks everything you just said. I mean, I had to deal with updates, but not in the same way. Like, I could just turn my console off and I came back the next day and it was updated. I think for the average person, a console gaming experience is just better. Console cheaper console console simpler console got all good game. I like console uh also play old game now too. Speaking like I'm speaking like a console game. Oh jeez. is that's going to go well. I just disagree that the PC is just plain better. I think that there's lots of benefits like mod and community support, but then there's lots of downsides. Like literally the first thing I do every single time I play a game is pop into the settings menu. I'm like, "Ooh, can't wait to play this new game. Let me just make sure it runs." I do that anyway, though. But I do it to like look through settings and adjust things to the way I wanted to. But I also do that on That's not gaming. Well, yeah, but it's getting me ready to game. Or I can make it look prettier for less performance. Or I can make it look worse for better performance. PlayStation has that. It's one button. Yeah. But I don't like the uh frame rate mode, performance mode or whatever. Yeah. Like it's You play games to admire the hardware you paid for. We admire the hardware we paid for. So we cuz it plays games. That's only true for like major AAA titles. I'm playing Slay the Spire right now. I play a ton of like garbage idol games. I play tons of stuff that's like and a lot of those things aren't on console. You are right. they're only on Steam. The real divider is that consoles great at gaming. PCs are also good at gaming, but also do a bunch of other things. So, that's kind of the the crux. If you want something that can do more than just game, then uh get it. But I also just spent like 3 months trying to troubleshoot my PC and I thought, what if I just go to a laptop and get a PS5? I think that's the reason none of us went to strongly on either side. Yeah, I think I I was almost neutral. I could be persuaded to the other side. Where do I actually lie? I own a computer. I have games on the computer. But console better. Console cheap. Console fast. Console cool. Console got FIFA every year. Okay. Okay. Back to the middle. I prefer frame rate over more resolution. You're not even waiting. So easy. Yeah. So easy. Getting to a baseline level of frame rate is important, but going over and above is not necessarily. And it does depend a bit on the game that you're playing. Like if you're playing a competitive game, Valerant, Counterstrike, you want every single edge that you can get. But if you're playing something more cinematic, you're playing a single player game, uh hitting like 120 frames is enough. I would rather play on a 1080p monitor at a higher like 120 frame rate with all the eye candy turned on, as long as it's like a 24 in display, than I would 4K low. Or medium or something. Yeah. Yeah. Resolution isn't just the answer. It's the resolution detail of the game you're playing or the the display that you're playing it on and how far away from that display you are. Like I think at the extremes things obviously change, but those are kind of extremes. And my argument is it's just like would you rather let isn't to a guy who cuts in and out constantly or would you rather him just talk smooth? Wi-Fi is good enough now and we just don't need a wire. Yeah. No, there's no way. Wi-Fi is very good now, but it's excellent. The best Wi-Fi is no Wi-Fi. Get a wire. When's the last time you went to a restaurant and they have those cellular terminals and you're in the back corner and it's just like I got to hold it up here so that I can get the signal. And to be clear, there are ways to improve your Wi-Fi that you will find benefit if you can't run a wire, but you should if you can. And Wi-Fi 6 or 7 is like amazing compared to old Wi-Fi. and that you can game on Wi-Fi these days. It is totally doable. Ask any video editor if they would rather have Wi-Fi or a cable. Even at the same speed, it's always the cable. Aim assist on controllers is functionally cheating in FPS games. If everyone has the same advantage, is it cheating? But they don't in some PC games, right? Cuz if you're playing on a controller on PC, you can enable aim assist. Yeah. And that's and that's bad. Yeah, I agree with that. I'm way better with a mouse than I am with the controller. Oh, sure. So, I think even those people who are playing that, sure, there might be the odd occasion where they get a snap head shot on me, but I think most of the time my mouse accuracy and response times is going to win over a controller with aim assist. I don't know, man. There's some crazy good players on controller. I know. There's crazy good players on mouse and keyboard, too. Especially if the game is not programmed correctly, like Arc Raiders, your aim assist was tied to frame rate. Oh, yeah. So, if you just used a controller on PC, it's just snapping to people's heads. We went through over 20 different questions while we were filming. And obviously, not all of it can make it into the main cut. So, if you're interested in seeing the bonus questions, head over to lmg.gg/flat to check it out. There's also some bloopers there as well. Every website turning into a marketplace is good, actually. Dog, what? I hate the commodification of everything. I hate that every single hobby that you have has to be monetized now. I hate that there's no passion. There's no creation that's done for the sole purpose of just enjoying art. It's not okay, man. We are sucking the passion. We are sucking the human aspect of creating art because everything has to be monetized. If you're playing games, why aren't you playing them on Twitch? Why don't you start working harder, slaving more? It sucks ass. And the fact that I can't go anywhere on the internet without being advertised to, it is the worst thing. And everyone is wasting their money on environmentally destructive trash being shipped across the ocean. It sucks, man. It's awful. I'm going I'm even more disagree. Why does a blog need uh a marketplace? Like every website, like why does every website need some kind of marketplace? I mean, even the common retail sites like Best Buy and whatnot turned into marketplaces just made them worse. I'm just trying to speak the devil's advocate here. I think the reason this could be seen as someone who would agree with this is now I only have to go to one place. No, I don't. Well, I'm I'm trying to justify it as to why this thought exists because I know people who are fine with just like, oh, I can just go to Walmart and order everything cuz it's just all can be shipped online or I can go to one site. If we're narrowing it down from the over like hyper capitalization of the internet to just talking about like switching a store into a marketplace, I'm still I still hate it against it because because the whole point of your store existing is to curate the for me. But now everything has the same stupid stuff and it all sucks. Adam, it's it's okay. No, it's not. Piracy is totally justified sometimes. Love Island isn't worth $15 a month. Listen, I'm not going to stand here and pretend that I've never ever pirated anything in my life, but I think what shows that you don't want to support something more is just to show no interest in the thing. See, I agree with you mostly except for dead media where it is still technically under copyright, but there is no legal way of obtaining it. And that is why I am here. I would have gone all the way if there was a guaranteed way of dead media. But we are losing media and that's where I think pirating might be the one edge case where I would be willing to break my line. This lane is for No, it's this that No, cuz that's one edge case. No, but he said sometimes. Yeah, he said sometimes. Also, theft is justified sometimes, too. Yeah, fine then. No, I'll stand your ground. Oh, fine. I'll stand on my ground. It's theft. Why are we letting middlemen get in between us and the things that we enjoy? Okay. I fully support uh bands and smaller artists who are new. I buy music off Band Camp. I buy records. But when it comes to like movies and shows, corporations are incredibly wealthy because they are ripping all of us off. And that's where I totally think theft is justified. I fully see everything you guys are stating. I guess my one question back then is how is it supporting someone more if you're stealing the content versus either paying for it or just not watching it anyways because then they're not getting money anyways, right? If they're big enough that I can steal it from a web like from a big player like a corporation, then like they're fine. That's probably why I didn't go all the way to strongly disagree. There is that small amount of times where I agree it's justified, but I think you need to pay for the art. Subscriptions can be better than buying something outright. I'm trying to think if there is a single subscription that I think is better. No, I don't think there is. Oh, wow. I was going to say I feel like I've taken a pretty strong stance against subscription models and stuff here. Sometimes you need one thing one time and a subscription is a very cheap way to get it. You see, you sign up, cancel it. Like, you know what I'm going to do when Fortza Horizon comes out? Pass. I'm going to play Game Pass for like 2 months and then I'm going to cancel it. A lot of the instances you brought up, Adam, can be used by um open source uh software that you'll struggle with for a day and the struggle will suck, but you can do it for free. I also hate Game Pass. I think that it's a great thing for a lot of people to get cheap games, but one, I think it's terrible for the industry. Yes. I also think that it sucks to not own things permanently. You don't own it anyways though with digital. Sure, I do. So, I'll put my computer in offline mode on Steam after it's downloaded and I have that for the rest of my life. Depends. Depends on the game cuz almost every game, but that's you're talking now about always online games, which I'm against to be clear. And does that have to be a subscription? No, that's a different thing. Yeah, I dislike the subscription model, but sometimes having a subscription available can be better for me. Adlock contributed to making the internet worse. Thank god I'm not the only one. Ads invaded me first. Okay, I'm just retaliating. I'm not even like saying that ad blockers don't protect people because people can be malicious with ads, whether it's a redirect or something. The only reason that YouTube is trying even harder to crack down on it, in my opinion, is because so many people are trying to circumvent it without paying for their service. I think that YouTube probably would have calmed down a little bit on the amount of ads they were pushing or how aggressive they're going against ad blockers if a lot of people didn't use them. I disagree because I think that the fro they're boiling the frog and you can either decide to try your best to hop out or just let them boil you. They were going to crank up the ads anyways. Profit margins are always being looked at. They're always trying to extract more. The reason why ad blockers popped up was because ads got crap in advance, right? There was a long time where ad blocking was not common, but it became the like one of the selling features of Chrome because of extensions. Yep. And if Google if Google is willing to de the ad the ad guys, Google was willing to bank their entire browser on its extension capabilities early on and allow ad blocking. Clearly, they were still making money. They weren't really afraid. I'm only here because of the contributed part of that sentence. contribute to some kind of essent contributes to making the internet better for me. If I'm being honest, AI has at least one killer app that uh I love. Wow, this is going to take a lot of people off, but I use an app to help go through my very long 16-hour Twitch live streams and find the key moments that are amazing that I can then turn into short form content. Just being able to throw the entire VOD into this thing that just goes, "Hey, here's 30 moments that you're going to want to clip and make." It saves me so much time and I paid a lot of money for that stupid app. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I use a an AI for editing podcasts to help find like it automatically selects breaks and also will detect like false starts or ums and a's and like help highlight those to cut those out a lot easier. Or like if I'm reviewing a product sometimes I'm like I have so many thoughts about this I don't know how to like structure them. I just want to get these all out and I don't want to have to deal with the slowness of trying to format it on the keyboard, right? Cuz my brain's running faster than my hands can do it. I will like spew stuff into like Gemini and then it will like kind of give it back to me slight in an organized manner using it as a tool that way because then that helps me go like okay here's my thoughts let's d take what these notes are dive into the script and make something good. I mean, what I've used it for a bunch in the past um has been taking large data sets and parsing through data sets to try and find trends and be able to interact with it on a more natural language level, too, instead of having to try and program something that could do the same thing. It's just easier to dump it all in one place and then ask the question. Are you over there just because you don't have an app that you use? The only thing that comes close is probably Otter and that could literally just be a recording software. It doesn't need the I don't need the transcription. I literally just need a recording software that I can It doesn't need AI. Transcriptions are super nice when you get those after meetings, though, because then you can control F and find specific words in a spot quickly. I've never needed to use AI for anything. I don't use it in my workflows in any single way. I'm also just very anti-AII, so I don't go looking for these things. Ladies and gentlemen, the based Nicholas PL. I like to support I guess good or proper integrations of AI cuz I think that's the ones we need to support so we don't get too much ination. Yeah, but are any of them good or just when they were all built off of garbage? And and that's an amazing question that we're not going to be able to answer in one sitting here today. You know what isn't made of garbage though? The segue to our sponsor, Acuity Scheduling. If you're running a business or any type of event, staying on task and being at the right place at the correct time is not as easy as it seems. With Acuity Scheduling, clients can cancel, schedule, and rebook meetings on their own so you just have to reference one calendar. But even if you need to use multiple calendars, it can sync across multiple apps, and you can set caps across all of them so you don't double book yourself. It will even help automate reminder messages, sending out forms, as well as prepping you with client information before your meetings. Acuity Scheduling also offers gift certificate and subscription tools built right into the platform, which means less planning and more repeat business for you. And if your business is transactional, Acuity Scheduling works with the most popular payment services. So you can send out links for contactless payment, freeing up more time. Go to acuitycheduling.com/lttT for a free trial and use offer code ltt20 to save 20% off your first Acuityuling subscription. If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure you leave a like. It's kind of a different one than we normally do. But if you are interested in these types of videos, go check out the tech experts react we did. It was us three and a different David, but we still wanted to get David this time. I don't know what they're doing.