HW News - Linus Tech Tips' Terrible Response, ESMC, & Starfield x AMD GPUs

So let me get this straight.
Linus screwed over a small two-person startup with his own incompetence by using the product in an unintended way and not using the GPU and instructions which were provided for him.
Stole their prototype which they needed to develop their product further, even going so far as to sell it at auction.
Goes on record to say "yes, we screwed up but it would cost $100-$500 to fix it so I'm not going to and no, I'm not apologizing for that". (That amount of money is chump change to him.)
Lies about offering to recompense the company. They didn't do that until after getting called out.
When he gets criticized for screwing over this company for his own mistakes, rather than owning up he tries to gaslight everybody into think he is somehow the victim?? "Today was so hard bros" oh poor wittle multi-millionaire Linus... I'll be sure to pray for you while I struggle to pay my rent.
What a fucking piece of shit, fuck him. I hate people like this that simply can't own up to mistakes and have to deflect all criticism.
- It's not just the Billet Labs thing, GN showed a pattern at LMG of rushing out bad test data and therefore wrong conclusions to keep up the frankly ridiculous volume of videos they put out.
  
  It's the sort of thing that makes me really, really sad for the people working there. That crazy breakneck pace cannot be good for mental health.
  
  I used to like LTT up until their "Linux Challenge" videos which were just a pain to watch. Shit like this coming from the biggest tech channel on youtube just drives me up the wall.
  
  Linus shits on entrepreneurship with his continual BS with easily caught bad data. No reputable companies should touch him. Anything he pushes to his viewers should be suspicious. I’ll be wondering how much LMG gets under the table for posting positive reviews.
- Woah woah woah woah!
  I dunno how many times this has to be said!
  He didn't SELL it! He AUCTIONED it!
  That's a distinction that needs to be made!
  
  And it was for CHARITY. Surely that obsolves him right?
- I was almost ready to be with you, but after reading the tweet from Madison elsewhere in the thread, Linus is going to have to go above and beyond to fix things.
  
  I feel what you're saying and I feel like I should be agreeing with you. But we do have to be careful here.
  What we know and what we see coming out of LMG is what they want us to know and see. When there's a video of Linus making it right, It's because they wanted to make a video showing him making it right. You're not going to see videos of him making it wrong and screwing over people, (if he does) It would be bad for business.
  Likewise one ex employee's statement of bad treatment there isn't gospel He has hundreds of people. There are plenty of people that have left and there's not a lot of consensus that I found that things are horrible there other than pace.
  His response to GN is obviously trash, written in a moment of anger. He tends to put his foot in his mouth on live streams when he starts getting angry about a subject.
  Him not sending back the prototype block, honestly is probably standard operating procedure. I wouldn't send anything to them that I didn't expect to lose. They receive so much equipment from so many places that they don't even open for years, that they're probably kind of blind to it actually being a hardship on a smaller place. I see the lie about him saying he already offered to pay them back a bit more problematic.
  As far as his actual reputation or his character alignment sheet, we don't really know. I would assume that if he was chaotic evil that we would hear a hell of a lot more about that. The guy he brought in to run the place is an insulating factor. When it was pitched it seemed that he was there to insulate Linus from the company, it's also likely that he's there to insulate the company from Linus.
  Honestly the only thing out of all this that rings unassailably true is the untrustworthy data claim. He's placing himself and his company to be a ultimate source of truth for benchmarking. But he comes right out and says that he won't strive to make a better benchmark for a product for $500 when the number is obviously off. There really isn't a lot of room for that in what he's trying to build. If you're going to come out and prove that power supplies, video cards, CPUs and motherboards make the numbers they say they're going to make, you're not going to do that with incorrect testing, shrugs and accusations. He's going to need to be honest to a fault and transparent. If he expects us to take the data seriously he's going to have to get out of this "oh that's good enough I'd trust it so you should trust it" mentality.

Jesus fuck Linus. Half the reason you are popular is because people trust your statements; and you are just flushing that away.
- They would have never done this to a larger manufacturer, but since the prototype was a passion project by two tech enthusiasts they simply did not care at all. It's frankly disgusting.
  
  But why does it even matter if they do it correctly or not? It's still a water block that costs over $800. It's a bad product at a fundamental level because not only is it a niche of a niche it's wildly overpriced. No amount of testing is going to make it a good product. It was never going to sell well. I do not understand why people care so much about it.
  The quanity-over-quality and QA errors are way more egregious than them shitting a product that deserves to get shit on. And as far as I can tell the auction thing is a single, isolated mistake of that nature. They do have a track record of making errors in their reviews. But what they don't have is a history of auctioning off prototypes. It is a really weird thing to be so up-in-arms about. It was an accident and they are paying for it. What is the big deal?
- +1, I never understand how influencer is a thing. They are basically getting paid by selling you stuff, its a conflict of interest.

Linus just straight up lied about Billet labs resolution. That alone is horrendous behaviour.

While not being directly related it might be worth noting that a former employee of lmg has now come forward on twitter to describe in gory detail the kind of treatment she received while working there. The culture there sounds utterly disgusting and based on their history it is all extremely believable. Link to the post
- Really makes me think they need a union. Also makes me wonder what all Linus learned from this guy who "taught me everything about management" if this is his style of management.
  
  Linus is explicitly anti-union. He's stated on camera that "if you treat your employees well, you don't need a union." All this bullshit coming out proves that's a fuckin' lie.
- This post should be pinned. I went in not liking her because to be she came off on camera as unlikable (giving you this context so you know my mindset going in to the read).
  By the end, I was sickened, disgusted and appalled at the treatment she got. I have obviously unsubbed. I was going to wait this out to see how LMG solved this but fuck them. I wish her all the best and as swift a recovery as possible.
  The saddest thing is, reading that post, you can tell exactly when she's quoting linus even when she doesn't mention him.
- Is Madison the one that became popular in the community after being snarky in a video while they were building a new PC for her? I think I remember her getting a job there afterwards. If I remember correctly, she was really funny.
- Is there an archive of the chain somewhere? I dont have twitter/x, and it won't let me see anything other than the main tweet
  
  Here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1691693740254228741?refresh=1692174340
  
  I think this reddit post has all of it.
- Can't read past the opening tweet without logging into twitter. Could you summarise or link to an article containing the info?
  
  Basically Madison got misled when getting hired, was expected to do way too much work, was verbally and physically sexually abused, and overall just treated like absolute shit. Not to mention that she was belittled when she complained about it

Linus is always dropping shit, and this is no different.
Also, don't fuck with tech Jesus

It's looking like Linus should have taken that $100 million offer he got and left when he had the chance.
- I get that some people like working, and that business founders can be very emotionally invested in their baby.
  But to imagine having $100 million waved in my face and saying “nah, I think I’ll just wake up and go to work tomorrow” is crazy to me. But I guess you can’t be a billionaire if you “settle” for nine figures and an absurdly comfortable life with nothing but free time to find new interests and see the world.
  
  I don’t think he works “traditionally” as he is essentially the sole founder and CEO. He’s the centre piece but it’s not like you’re actually “going to work” but rather building something. That doesn’t make the $100 an escape but more as an offer for someone to take what you built all this time and saying later.
  A good analogy is walking your dog, that you cherish, and someone offers to buy him right there.
  
  Even if you like working. Taking those $100 million means you and your family will, for generations not have to worry about work. You can take the money and still work like a madman by either making a new venture or doing charity.
  But I guess for some people it's more about the power than the money.
  
  That company is probably worth way more then that. Or at least could be. So if you're even remotely prideful, you probably think that's a slap in the face.

- A labs employee mouthed off and GN went full scorched earth
  
  Steve actually said in the first video that they didn’t respond at all to the labs’ employee comment.

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Wow. When you're supposed to wait and hear from both sides and this is what comes... Yikes. Went to check and read the whole response and any other replies that might have come from it on their forum and found ~115 pages (oops 2 more while writing this) of discussion after Linus' post.

All I want is just good hardware reviews, the rest is noise...
- All I want is just good hardware reviews
  Same. Seems LTT and Short Circuit is out. As demonstrated, they aren't a reliable source.
- Same, that's why i never liked that twat
- I really only ever followed any tech channels for cool videos and news, reviews are nearly pointless to me until I'm trying to actually buy or recommend something.
  But outside of an occasional great video or at least great topic (like the 48kW fan), LMG barely offers anything special in that space anymore, despite still being the biggest outlet. GN has news down pat (along with reviews), Storage Review and STH cover enterprise stuff that Linus has only exceeded once with the million dollar (or whatever it was) setup, and plenty of channels do guides.

I've never understood the appeal of Linus Tech Tips anyway. Anthony was great but Linus is just terrible as a host. "Oh no, Linux sucks because it is not Windows! Oh no I broke the system because I couldn't read the text on the screen!"
- I feel like the point of that video though was to point out how a common user using linux would just make these kind of mistakes which do happen and are legitimate. That's one of the reasons why I enjoy Linux Mint so much really. Simple to use and not too much of a hassle while also slightly helping you understand some of the easier aspects of Linux.

Linus is tech cancer plain and simple, now more so.

He's an idiot. After I saw him installing Linux I was sure about that. What a bozo.

and now there stuf about sexual harasment......

I agree with Steve on everything, this was a huge blunder and fail in messaging from Linus. But you are supposed to reach out and ask for comment before running a story. I was a news reporter and have a master's in public relations.
Edit: Called Linus "Linux"
- You ask for a comment regarding an accusation, this wasn't something to get a comment for, it was the details and evidence itself which is not refutable.
  If there was a claim against someone of an event that cannot be shown, you would ask them for their version of events, if the news had a clear video of an irrefutable event they would not require comment for what the video itself would clearly demonstrate.
  Steve's video was demonstrable information through explicit evidence, it wasn't something that a comment would have shed light to as the only appropriate comment that could be made be a public response.
  The content of the video could not have been changed and given what was demonstrated, it did not serve the viewerbase to wait for the response of the larger platform with greater reach.
  Linus Tech Tips has the reach needed to be seen by at least as many viewers with their response.
  
  Nope. You call them up and go, "This is happening and we're running a story. Care to comment?" You should even have a list of questions to ask if they agree. They can give you bullshit answers if they want, then you point those out and add that to the story. It doesn't have to affect the story. Facts are facts, and they can try to explain it away, but can't. You're still holding them accountable. You're just also giving them a chance to apologize or own up to it. And if they dont' comment, you include that.
  Steve and crew are amazing tech journalists. They're doing great work. But that's a miss in this whole thing.
- But you are supposed to reach out and ask for a comment before running a story.
  In certain cases yes. This is not one. What comment could Linus have given that would contextualize the story in such a way to excuse factual information?
  Steve was absolutely vindicated in refusing to ask for comment due to Linus's behavior. Had he asked for comment, Linus would have contacted Billet prior to the release. Instead, Linus makes a statement that heavily (if not outright) implies that had Steve asked for comment he would have context to know that an agreement had been made between LMG/Linus and Billet Labs before the video dropped. Because Steve did not reach out for comment we now know that this was a lie or an attempt to obfuscate the truth.
  If you are extolling factual information you do not owe the subject a comment. If your work could be damaged (see above) by doing so you do not owe the subject a comment. If a person has already commented publicly you do not owe the subject a comment.
  Steve reported objectively factual information that cannot be excused with any context. The story that was written at the time would have been damaged had he asked for comment. Linus has a public presence and has made his feelings known about previous scandals before, and his actual response was entirely telegraphed in tone, if not also content, by long time viewers.
  There is not some ethics masterclass that would have come to the conclusion that Steve violated journalistic integrity by running this story without comment from Linus. You may not like it, but you're also not some ethics in journalism arbiter.
- I agree it's generally good practice to ask the subject for comment, and Steve seems to know that because he explains at length why he didn't here. I criticized him for this when the last video came out, but I thought his explanation in this new video for why he didn't contact Linus first is pretty good; I'm not sure why you're being downvoted here, but since you are a former reporter I'd be interested in hearing specifics on why you disagree with it.
- Yea, I think that and a few other nitpicky things are the only flaws in GN's argument. Otherwise, the testing results and Billet's response speaks for itself. LTT is going too loose and fast and while that's bad, it's understandable if you're a fledging company. That's all LTT had to point out. And instead of being humble and retrospective they put out this PR nightmare of a response.
  I used to be a regular watcher of LTT, but really noticed their latest videos have declined in quality and it's apparent that they're just pumping out as much videos as possible.

Oof.

So annoying how all good tech channels now lean on drama and sensationalism to get more engagement.
Digital Foundry seems to be the last one where people are level-headed.
- I didn't find this to be overly dramatic or sensationalized. I enjoy knowing when one of the people I regularly watch are in fact assholes. Note, he didn't say they were assholes. He merely repeated what they did and called out issues. He said he wouldn't be covering the channel anymore after their response. Just decent journalism in my opinion.
  
  Yea, but ever since Nexus started doing their "investigations", so much of their content looks like cable news. They now jump on all opportunities to drum up more drama.
- Yes, facts are drama, for sure.
- They came from a tech journalist forum before doing reviews, covering bad practices in the industry, most notoriously MSI, and Linus being the face of PC hardware with so many inaccuracies is just another topic.
- Understandable, but I think many people (including me) are fine with a little drama every once in a while as long as it's warranted and doesn't damage the substance of the content. Unnecessary drama can certainly be a problem, but unnecessarily making dramatic things boring is not necessarily the solution.
  
  I can agree with that. It may be that ever since I no longer subscribe to the tech elite (LTT, MKBHD, Nexus, Jays2Cents, etc) - I only come across their content when there is drama!