[blfr]

The YouTube golden age is right now. The content is the most varied, from super niche 2k views a video vloggers to massive terrestrial channels alternatives. To the point where I think creative poverty of established fields is caused by younger creatives being on YouTube and TikTok instead of writing rooms at old media.

Windows has fallen off hard but Linux has never been better. The personal computing in general has never been better: OLED screens, dark modes, everything runs on virtually every platform...

The only thing we've really lost is the Internet community. Eternal September turned out to be truly eternal and then went on steroids. But the tools? Never better.

[bjelkeman-again]

> Linux has never been better

I replace Windows with Linux on my last Windows computer this week. A mixed bag of old motherboard, new-ish graphics card etc. I think I would have had a hard time to get an acceptable usage experience without using an LLM to guide me through the hiccups. (Odd window manager boot problem, sound device issue). But I agree, the Linux ecosystem seem to have something for everyone and on modern hardware it behaves relatively well. LLM as your local tech support works surprisingly well too.

[weakened_malloc]

> LLM as your local tech support works surprisingly well too.

Isn't that partly why I would imagine Linux is better than ever? I'm a relatively technical person compared to some of my peers and without LLMs I just wouldn't have the time to sit and toy around with search up what random errors mean, why things aren't working, why things are crashing, making a forum post and waiting for a response or searching through stack overflow.

But now, it's no longer an issue!

[Sammi]

LLMs as tech support is truly the singular new reason causing Linux usage to jump atm. All the other reasons are just slowly accumulative.

LLMs as tech support is the feather breaking the back of the Windows stranglehold.

[dijit]

dunno.

If you gave two people with no other knowledge of computer access: Kubuntu and Windows 11

I'm sure they'd have an easier time with Kubuntu, and this gap has been widening for quite some time in the favour of KDE.

The largest issues seem to be either power users doing esoteric things to their systems, or people who want to work the Windows way.

Drivers (for as much as I can tell) are mostly solved, with some minor touch buttons on some laptops being an issue in some cases.

I'm not comparing Linux of 2007 to now, I'm comparing Windows now to Linux of now- the only real edge Windows has going for it is that it's already installed when you buy your computer.

[achenet]

I generally agree with you (I'm typing this on a laptop running Void Linux), but I do still keep a Windows laptop for gaming and music production - I've tried running Bitwig Studio on Linux, and it's easier on Windows. While I've heard good things about gaming on Linux/Steam on Linux, I've never bothered to try it myself, being content to just use Windows PC for gaming :)

[markovs_gun]

For me the main thing is Windows has gotten so bad that I was finally willing to spend time getting Linux running. LLMs are nice, but not necessary. Claude helped me with a driver issue at least knowing where to look but the answer was ultimately on a Linux forum. I think LLMs help but it isn't that much better than just searching old forum posts.

At least for me, the availability of LLM help had nothing to do with my decision to switch to Linux, it was Proton making it to where games run great on Linux and Windows being intolerably bad.

[Otterly99]

The actual content yes, but the recommendation engine switching from "Here is a video that is kind of like this one, you might like it" to "Here is a video that we predict will keep you on this website for as long as possible" definitely soured the experience.

[satvikpendem]

PocketTube. I organize all my subscriptions and only watch those now, I rarely actually go to the home page with recommendations.

[jahller]

I like that sentiment and fully agree regarding YouTube. Unlike Facebook, it's still possible to tune your feed to your exact interests. I have never had a better experience with any video medium, neither linear TV, nor streaming, than I have with YouTube right now.

[walthamstow]

Instagram is now much better for this with its "customise your algorithm" feature. I was able to strip out all the crap it thinks I like and focus on one specific topic.

[Arkhaine_kupo]

> The content is the most varied

If no one can find it, you basically have a modern digital version of the "if a tree falls and no one hears it does it make a sound".

Discoverability in youtube is currently absurdly shit. The algo just decides you like something and shows you the exact same videos you have already watched 30 times. Its so so bad, specially with how good the front page and side recommendations used to be.

Now its a fight of shorts, repeated videos, AI garbage, and search ignoring explicitly your request.

[satvikpendem]

Maybe it's your algorithm then because I found lots of great stuff that it surfaced to me that were not just repeats but adjacent topics. For example if I watch Veritasium I get videos about other math and physics topics and creators.

[Arkhaine_kupo]

> Maybe it's your algorithm

Nope, its just the set up of Youtube.

The front page is by design around 60% videos you have already watched. Best case scenario.

It used to be 9 videos in 3 rows of 3. now its 2 videos, then 5 shorts.

In the side bar the default was "Related" which was almost always new videos, directly related to the video you just watched. Now its a tab called "All" which aggregates related tabs such as "Watched" which again is videos you already watched. Content from the same channel (not necessary related to the current video)

All of this hides possibly related videos and narrows down discoverability.

it also ignores the push of youtube to reduce visibility of things (the front page being mostly shorts by volume is pretty telling)