Linus Sebastian
Linus Gabriel Sebastian (born August 20, 1986) is a Canadian YouTube personality, presenter, producer, and founder of Linus Media Group.
Linus Sebastian | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sebastian in August 2013 | |||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||
Born | Linus Gabriel Sebastian August 20, 1986[1] Ladner, British Columbia, Canada | ||||||||||||
Nationality | Canadian | ||||||||||||
Residence | Surrey, British Columbia, Canada | ||||||||||||
Occupation | Video presenter, technology demonstrator, and advertiser | ||||||||||||
Spouse(s) | Yvonne Ho ( m. 2011) | ||||||||||||
YouTube information | |||||||||||||
Channels | |||||||||||||
Years active | 2007–present | ||||||||||||
Subscribers | 11.5 million (Linus Tech Tips) 3.53 million (Techquickie) 1.26 million (TechLinked) 945,000 (ShortCircuit) 739,000 (Channel Super Fun) 240,000 (LinusCatTips) 178,000 (LMG Clips) 42,000 (Carpool Critics) | ||||||||||||
Total views | 3.9 billion (Linus Tech Tips) 526 million (Techquickie) 182 million (TechLinked) 97.6 million (Channel Super Fun) 55.9 million (ShortCircuit) 20.2 million (LMG Clips) 10.5 million (LinusCatTips) 419,000 (Carpool Critics) | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Updated August 16, 2020 |
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 16 million users. 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 July 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
Sebastian was working as a 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 full-time sales representative, a high-end systems designer, a product manager, and a category manager.[9][10]
Linus Media Group
Sebastian founded Linus Media Group 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.
Notable projects
"7 Gamers 1 CPU" (early 2016 – late 2016)
On January 2, 2016, Linus Tech Tips released a video demonstrating a computer capable of supporting seven individual players at once, with an estimated total cost of $30,000.[11][12] The video made technology news on a number of websites,[13][14][15] and gained over one million views on the day it was uploaded.[16] Two more videos of the machine, including benchmarking and overclocking results, were released before the machine was disassembled during a livestream the following month.
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.[13][14][15]
On May 22, 2016, Linus Tech Tips released a sequel project, which was a system that allowed for eight users to play games simultaneously, among other improvements.[17]
iMac Pro incident (2018)
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,[18] an act (refusal to repair) that has been speculated by VentureBeat to be illegal.[19]
Gaming PC Secret Shopper (2018)
In December 2018, Linus Tech Tips released a four-part series detailing their experience buying a gaming PC from 6 System Integrators (SI) representing 3 different market tiers: two major manufacturers (HP and Alienware), two high-volume SI (iBuyPower and CyberPowerPC), two upscale boutique SI (Origin PC and Maingear) to see what they would offer to an average customer. The experiences were varied (from positive to one company representative, when asked for suggestions, deciding not to offer any computer at all).[20] The series has gained over 11.7 million views and was covered in PC Gamer magazine[21]
Personal life
Sebastian has been married to Yvonne Ho since May 20, 2011.[22] They have one son and two daughters.[23][24][25]
In an interview with technology startup website Tech.Co, Sebastian said that his favourite YouTubers were TotalBiscuit, Marques Brownlee, iJustine and Austin Evans.[26] In February 2014, Sebastian was among the YouTubers who contributed funds and support to Evans, who lost his possessions and home in a fire.[27][28]
In January 2020, Sebastian said he is considering retiring. He followed this up however, by stating that he is not going to retire at this time.[29][30]
References
- 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.
- 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)
- Linus Tech Tips (December 30, 2017), Luke's LAST WAN Show as an LMG Employee!! - WAN Show Dec. 29 2017, retrieved September 22, 2018
- "Top 250 YouTubers tech Channels - Socialblade YouTube Stats | YouTube Statistics". socialblade.com. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
- "Meet The Top 1% Of YouTube's "Google Preferred" Channels For Advertisers (Exclusive)". Retrieved January 3, 2016.
- How I Became. "How I Became: LinusTechTips (Linus Sebastian)". youtube.com. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
Timestamp 0 minutes 50 seconds
- Sebastian, Linus (July 24, 2007). "Sunbeam Tuniq Tower (NCIX Tech Tips #1)". YouTube. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
- "LinusTechTips – About". youtube.com. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
- "The History of Linus Media Group". Archived from the original on November 30, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
- "I'm Linus Sebastian of LinusTechTips, and This Is How I Work". LifeHacker. LifeHacker. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
- Richards, Rae Michelle. "EVER WANTED TO BUILD A$30,000 COMPUTER? BECAUSE THIS GUY DID IT!". Broken Joy Sticks. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
- "7 Gamers, 1 CPU – Ultimate Virtualized Gaming Build Log". Youtube. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
- Khan, Imad. "$30,000 gaming PC defies logic, lets seven people game at once". DailyDot. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
- "Youtuber spend equivalent to R $120,000 to build supercomputer". UOL. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
- 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.
- "Linustech Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
- "8 (or is it 10?) Gamers, 1 CPU – Taking it to the Next Level!". Youtube. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
- April 2018, Matt Hanson 19. "YouTube channel claims Apple is refusing to fix its broken iMac Pro". TechRadar. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- 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.
- The four-part "Gaming PC Secret Shopper" series:
- Sebastian, Linus (December 4, 2018). "Are PC Manufacturers Ripping You Off? - $1500 Gaming PC Secret Shopper pt1". Linus Tech Tips. Linus Media Group. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- Sebastian, Linus (December 11, 2018). "What did we BUY?? - $1500 Gaming PC Secret Shopper pt2". Linus Tech Tips. Linus Media Group. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- Sebastian, Linus (December 18, 2018). "This guy should get FIRED!! - $1500 Gaming PC Secret Shopper pt3". Linus Tech Tips. Linus Media Group. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- Sebastian, Linus (December 25, 2018). "Final Verdict - $1500 Gaming PC Secret Shopper pt4". Linus Tech Tips. Linus Media Group. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- Sebastian, Linus (December 4, 2018). "Are PC Manufacturers Ripping You Off? - $1500 Gaming PC Secret Shopper pt1". Linus Tech Tips. Linus Media Group. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- Lilly, Paul (December 26, 2018). "Linus Tech Tips finds a range of issues in $1,500 gaming PCs". PC Gamer. Future US Inc. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- Sebastion, Linus (October 27, 2017). "Bixby Showcase – It does more than you might think!". Youtube. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
- Linus Sebastian. "Family Sunday Fun with the Cats and Children". youtube.com. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
Sebastian in family vlog
- "Linus Tech Tips on Twitter". Twitter. Twitter. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
- LinusTechTips (November 12, 2016), Ultimate DIY Desk PC – DRILLING SO MANY HOLES, retrieved December 15, 2016
- "Secrets of the Most Successful Tech YouTube Content Creators Revealed". Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- "Surprising Austin Evans". Retrieved January 3, 2016.
Time stamp 12 minutes 0 seconds
- "YouTube users unite to help vlogger who lost everything in a house fire". Retrieved January 3, 2016.
- I've been thinking of retiring., retrieved January 29, 2020
- Garreffa, Anthony (January 23, 2020). "Linus from LinusTechTips is 'thinking of retiring'". TweakTown. Retrieved January 29, 2020.