Yes, I think the main problem was System 76 shipping a beta DE with an LTS release, which is why I'm surprised most people focused on shitting on Linus for the problem he is having.

Given that most users are still on Windows, you can tell just how numb most people are to bs coming from their OS, so it makes sense for an average user to try out a popular distro a 2nd time after it didn't work out the first time. Also, this is the 2nd time he's trying it, so calling it his fault for not trying another distro after failing twice is kinda misplaced, isn't it? If he's still on Pop!_OS in the next video, then your criticism would make sense. He's also not shitting on Linux, only showing the problems he encountered. If he was trying to shit on Linux, the perspective of the other two presenters wouldn't be so positive.

Linus definitely plays up the character of someone who knows enough to be dangerous. That's part of the entertainment of his channel. Expecting him to only do things competently is basically asking him to abandon the style of his current content. It's like expecting a serious car review from Top Gear. You're never gonna get it and you shouldn't be expecting it.

Linus didn't shit on Linux as a whole, come on. Last time he tried Pop was over a year ago, he figured something might've changed in the meantime. And he did research what could be causing the issues (and found a fix for L4D2), and did also mention that overall the system was intuitive, installing it was fairly simple and he enjoyed not having his data being sold. He also said that all his devices were plug-and-play, no driver downloading shenanigans required. But of course he is going to highlight the issues he runs into, it's kind of the point of the video to show that not all experiences with Linux are seamless, and you can get radically different results depending on your chosen distro.

You're missing the point. He said it himself. He wants to approach the challenge like what a normal person would encounter Linux. That means no team doing the research for him and no using the industry connection to solve every problem. His target audience are not Linux experts that have all the knowledge, it's windows users who are interested in tech, but are average users. Expecting a GN type video from LTT is like expecting a serious car review from Top Gear. I'd say you'd be foolish to expect that.

This is simply another piece of engagement bait.

Who is expecting otherwise? This is Linus we're talking about.

He didn't have a motivation to switch. He didn't raise a clear scenario why he claims to want to switch.

What were you expecting? He's making a video about switching to Linux for a month. When did they say he is motivated to switch completely? It's another trial video like it has been before. If any of the participant liked it enough, they can decide to stay, like Luke did on his laptop. Where is this idea that he needs to be completely determined to switch even coming from?

I've met many Linux newbies in my life - not a single one just went with the first distro showing up. Not a single one. Depending on the individual it was either "what's best for me?" or "What's easiest?".

Did he not google the best distro for his use case, which is gaming? What else are you expecting an average user to do? They showed two perspective of an average user when looking for a Linux distro, either by referring to Reddit recommendation or googling and asking ChatGPT? Are you telling me both of these methods are not valid or something an average user wouldn't do?