Linus Sebastian

Linus Gabriel Sebastian (born August 20, 1986) is a Canadian YouTube personality, presenter, and producer. He is the founder of Linus Media Group (LMG) and has served as its CEO since 2013.

Linus Sebastian
Sebastian in August 2013
Personal information
BornLinus Gabriel Sebastian
(1986-08-20) August 20, 1986[1]
Ladner, British Columbia, Canada
NationalityCanadian
OccupationVideo presenter, technology demonstrator, and advertiser
Spouse(s)
Yvonne Ho
​
(m. 2011)​
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2007–present
GenreTechnology
Subscribers
  • 12.9 million (Linus Tech Tips)
  • 3.7 million (Techquickie)
  • 1.4 million (TechLinked)
  • 1.3 million (ShortCircuit)
  • 812,000 (Channel Super Fun)
  • 257,000 (LMG Clips)
  • 246,000 (LinusCatTips)
  • 79,700 (Carpool Critics)
Total views
  • 4.48 billion (Linus Tech Tips)
  • 581 million (Techquickie)
  • 227 million (TechLinked)
  • 120 million (ShortCircuit)
  • 104 million (Channel Super Fun)
  • 40.2 million (LMG Clips)
  • 10.7 million (LinusCatTips)
  • 1.2 million (Carpool Critics)
100,000 subscribers 2011 (Linus Tech Tips)
2013 (Techquickie)
2015 (Channel Super Fun)
2018 (LinusCatTips)
2018 (TechLinked)
2020 (ShortCircuit)
2020 (LMG Clips)
1,000,000 subscribers 2014 (Linus Tech Tips)
2016 (Techquickie)
2019 (TechLinked)
2020 (ShortCircuit)
10,000,000 subscribers 2020 (Linus Tech Tips)
Updated: February 2, 2021

Sebastian is best known for creating and hosting four technology YouTube channels, Linus Tech Tips, Techquickie, TechLinked, and ShortCircuit, which have a combined subscriber base of over 19 million. From 2007 to 2015, he was also a regular presenter of technology videos for the now defunct Canadian computer retailer NCIX. In 2015, Inc. magazine ranked Sebastian 4th in a list of the "Top 30 Power Players in Tech".[2] He is also the owner of Floatplane Media.[3]

As of September 2020, Linus Tech Tips is ranked the most watched technology channel on YouTube.[4] In 2014, Tubefilter named the channel as being within the "top 1% of Google's preferred advertising channels" on YouTube for the technology category.[5]

Career

NCIX and Linus Tech Tips
The Linus Tech Tips logo as of 2018.

Sebastian was working as a product manager for the now defunct Canadian online computer store NCIX. He was asked by the company to be the host for its technology channel, which was created to help demonstrate products. Sebastian was assisted by an unidentified cameraman and editor, and worked with limited resources, shooting videos with a camera borrowed from the son of the company's president.[6] His first video was a demonstration for a Sunbeam processor heatsink.[7]

Due to high costs and low viewership during the early days of the channel, Sebastian was instructed to create the Linus Tech Tips channel as a cheaper offshoot of the NCIX channel, to allow for lower production values without impacting the NCIX brand. He described TigerDirect and Newegg as competitors.[6] Linus Tech Tips was created on November 24, 2008.[8]

Sebastian did not develop videos full-time at NCIX. During his time at the company, he worked as a full-time sales representative, high-end systems designer, product manager, and category manager.[9][10]

Linus Media Group

Sebastian founded Linus Media Group (LMG) in January 2013 out of a garage, with Luke Lafreniere, Edzel Yago, and Brandon Lee.[9] The group developed the Linus Tech Tips channel as an independent venture. Since 2017, LMG hosts an annual event known as the LTX Expo, a "convention featuring tech-focused content creators and personalities".[11]

Notable projects

On January 2, 2016, Linus Tech Tips released a video demonstrating a computer capable of supporting seven individual users at once, with an estimated total cost of $30,000.[12][13] The video made technology news on a number of websites.[14][15][16] The computer had eight modules of 32 GB ECC DDR4 RAM, eight 1 TB Kingston SSDs, two Intel Xeon 14-core E5 2697 v3 processors, seven AMD R9 Nano GPUs, an EVGA T2 1600W PSU, and was housed in a Caselabs Mercury S8 with an Asus Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard. The project was sponsored by Kingston Technology.[14][15][16]

In August 2017, the Linus Tech Tips channel uploaded a two part video where they were able to game at 16K Resolution (15360 by 8640) using 16 4K Acer Predator XB1 monitors in a 4 by 4 configuration.[17] The system running the display was equipped with 4 Nvidia Quadro P5000[18]

In April 2018, the Linus Tech Tips channel uploaded a video claiming that Apple refused to repair his iMac Pro (paid, non-warranty repairs) after they damaged it in a product teardown,[19] an act (refusal to repair) that has been speculated by VentureBeat to be illegal.[20]

In December 2018, Linus Tech Tips released a four-part series detailing their experience buying a gaming PC from 6 systems integrators representing 3 different market tiers: two major manufacturers (HP and Alienware), two high-volume systems integrators (iBuyPower and CyberPowerPC), and two upscale boutique systems integrators (Origin PC and Maingear) to see what they would offer to an average customer. Linus Media Group accountant Agent Janice went undercover with sales and tech support representatives from each systems integrator to determine which were the best, and which were the worst. The experiences were varied. Some systems integrators were very helpful and respectful, while others were the exact opposite.[21] The series has gained over 12 million views and was covered in PC Gamer.[22]

Personal life

Sebastian has been married to Yvonne Ho since May 20, 2011.[23] They have one son and two daughters.[24][25][26]

In an interview with technology startup website Tech.Co, Sebastian said that his favourite YouTubers were TotalBiscuit, Marques Brownlee, and Austin Evans.[27] In February 2014, Sebastian was among the group of YouTubers who contributed funds and support to Evans, who lost his possessions and home in a fire.[28][29]

In January 2020, Sebastian said he was thinking about retiring. He followed this up, however, by stating that he is not going to retire at this time.[30][31]

References
  1. Linus Tech Tips [@LinusTech] (August 20, 2014). "Me: Holy crap I'm gonna be 29 in an hour! Wife: 28.... Me: Oh, that's better Wife: My goodness..." (Tweet). Retrieved October 22, 2016 – via Twitter.
  2. RAMPTON, JOHN. "30 Power Players in Tech You Need to Know". Inc. Archived from the original on July 24, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. "Luke's LAST WAN Show as an LMG Employee!! - WAN Show Dec. 29 2017", Linus Tech Tips, December 30, 2017, archived from the original on July 31, 2020, retrieved September 22, 2018 – via YouTube
  4. "Top 250 YouTubers tech Channels - Socialblade YouTube Stats | YouTube Statistics". socialblade.com. Archived from the original on June 19, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  5. "Meet The Top 1% Of YouTube's "Google Preferred" Channels For Advertisers (Exclusive)". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  6. "How I Became: LinusTechTips (Linus Sebastian)". How I Became. Archived from the original on October 17, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2016 – via YouTube.
  7. Sebastian, Linus (July 24, 2007). "Sunbeam Tuniq Tower (NCIX Tech Tips #1)". NCIX Tech Tips. Archived from the original on February 6, 2019. Retrieved July 16, 2016 – via YouTube.
  8. "About". Linus Tech Tips. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2016 – via YouTube.
  9. "The History of Linus Media Group". Linus Media Group. Archived from the original on November 30, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  10. "I'm Linus Sebastian of LinusTechTips, and This Is How I Work". LifeHacker. Archived from the original on January 10, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  11. "DreamHack to Provide Festival Experience at Linus Tech Tips Expo". The Esports Observer. February 22, 2019. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  12. Richards, Rae Michelle. "EVER WANTED TO BUILD A$30,000 COMPUTER? BECAUSE THIS GUY DID IT!". Broken Joy Sticks. Archived from the original on January 9, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  13. "7 Gamers, 1 CPU – Ultimate Virtualized Gaming Build Log". Linus Tech Tips. Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016 – via YouTube.
  14. Khan, Imad. "$30,000 gaming PC defies logic, lets seven people game at once". DailyDot. Archived from the original on April 23, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  15. "Youtuber spend equivalent to R $120,000 to build supercomputer". UOL. Archived from the original on January 8, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  16. Utomo, Riandanu Madi. "Computer Can Be Played By 7 People Simultaneously". Metro TV News. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  17. "GAMING at 16K RESOLUTION?? - HOLY $H!T". Linus Tech Tips. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  18. Orland, Kyle (August 3, 2017). "What kind of gaming rig can run at 16K resolution?". Ars Technica. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  19. Hanson, Matt (April 19, 2018). "YouTube channel claims Apple is refusing to fix its broken iMac Pro". TechRadar. Archived from the original on September 7, 2019. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  20. Horwitz, Jeremy (April 18, 2018). "Apple refuses to fix iMac Pro damaged in YouTube teardown". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  21. The four-part "Gaming PC Secret Shopper" series:
  22. Lilly, Paul (December 26, 2018). "Linus Tech Tips finds a range of issues in $1,500 gaming PCs". PC Gamer. Future US Inc. Archived from the original on February 27, 2019. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
  23. Sebastian, Linus (October 27, 2017). "Bixby Showcase – It does more than you might think!". Archived from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017 – via YouTube.
  24. Linus Sebastian. "Family Sunday Fun with the Cats and Children". Archived from the original on May 7, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2016 – via YouTube. Sebastian in family vlog
  25. "Linus Tech Tips on Twitter". Twitter. Twitter. Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  26. LinusTechTips (November 12, 2016), Ultimate DIY Desk PC – DRILLING SO MANY HOLES, archived from the original on November 12, 2016, retrieved December 15, 2016
  27. "Secrets of the Most Successful Tech YouTube Content Creators Revealed". Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  28. "Surprising Austin Evans". Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2016. Time stamp 12 minutes 0 seconds
  29. "YouTube users unite to help vlogger who lost everything in a house fire". Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  30. I've been thinking of retiring., archived from the original on January 28, 2020, retrieved January 29, 2020 – via YouTube
  31. Garreffa, Anthony (January 23, 2020). "Linus from LinusTechTips is 'thinking of retiring'". TweakTown. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
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