Linus Tech Tips: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "I could hardly believe my eyes! - Looking Glass Holographic Monitor", hN uses it as a reasonably detailed overview of Looking Glass tech, including a segment showing the pixel mapping behind the 3D effect.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2024demoHN uses it as a reasonably detailed overview of Looking Glass tech, including a segment showing the pixel mapping behind the 3D effect.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2023–2024demoHN commenters cite it as a realistic demonstration of E-Ink monitor refresh rates and how such displays feel in use.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2021–2023demoIt is linked in laptop thermal threads for a layman's overview of why Apple limits surface temperature and why the mod is not simple.
- 2 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2022explainerMany HN commenters say this review convinced them to consider Framework as an alternative to Apple and Lenovo laptops.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2025–2026interviewHN mines it for Torvalds's opinions, such as ECC RAM, AI hype, and his desktop setup, and as a rare long informal interview.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2025commentaryHN cites it as concrete data on how a big YouTube channel diversifies revenue and how little comes from AdSense.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2024explainerHN uses it as an example of a capable budget Walmart laptop.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2023explainerHN cites it as broad, accessible evidence that cheap Android TV boxes often come loaded with malware.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2018–2020commentaryHN commenters cite it as a concrete example of Apple's hostility to repair and weak support for 'pro' hardware, mostly in right-to-repair debates.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2023commentaryReferenced in clickbait and YouTube-algorithm debates as a candid creator explanation of why good channels use poor thumbnails.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2022commentaryHN cites it as Linus's own explanation of why he invested in Framework and why outside investment suits a hardware company.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2022–2026commentaryHN links it as the standard reference whenever laptop sleep and battery drain on Windows come up, including the later point that nothing has improved.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2025demoHN commenters cite it as informal evidence that higher refresh rates measurably help both pro and casual players, even though it is more entertainment than rigorous science.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2022–2023demoHN cites it as evidence that DisplayPort cable labeling is unreliable and that even major brands can fail, and for its explanation of version differences.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2021commentaryHN refers to it as an honest, candid account of the common story of losing precious data to storage failure.
- 2 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2022explainerHN cites it as evidence that mining does not meaningfully degrade GPUs, so used mining cards are generally fine buys.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2017–2026demoHN cites it as empirical evidence that PCIe cables can be chained to roughly three meters before failing.
- cited 11× 0 months 2021–2025commentaryHN mostly cites it as evidence of Linux's rough edges for ordinary users, including the Steam install that removed the desktop environment, and it prompted an apt fix.
- cited 3× 0 months 2019–2021commentaryHN cites it as evidence that a good air cooler matches pricier liquid cooling, so water cooling is often unnecessary.
- cited 3× 0 months 2025explainerUsed as a data source on how creators earn money, especially the share from YouTube Premium and sponsors in ad-blocking and advertising threads.
- cited 3× 0 months 2020–2022demoHN references it when people ask about dev machines and to show how large the CPU and cooler are.
- cited 8× 0 months 2020–2021demoCited in Apple thermal-design debates as evidence the Intel-era MacBook cooling was poor.
- cited 11× 0 months 2021–2022commentaryCited as evidence of how poorly Windows x86 emulation on Arm performed in 2021 compared with Apple's M1 and Rosetta.
- cited 4× 0 months 2019–2022demoHN cites it whenever someone asks whether USB-C holds up better than micro USB, as a small sample but concrete test.
- cited 5× 0 months 2017–2019commentaryHN cites it as a source for Intel's market-segmentation tactics on its high-end desktop platform.
- cited 10× 0 months 2020–2025demoHN cites it as precedent for repurposing mining-only GPUs for graphics, in threads about Nvidia limiting mining on gaming cards.
- cited 3× 0 months 2019–2020demoCited as an example of data hoarders testing Google's unlimited storage and of Google rate limiting heavy use.
Questions
Which Linus Tech Tips video does Hacker News recommend most?
I could hardly believe my eyes! - Looking Glass Holographic Monitor: recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users between 2020 and 2024.
Is this every Linus Tech Tips video?
No. Only videos that at least three different HN users linked, in at least three different months, with at least a sentence of their own commentary. That filter is what makes the list useful.
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.