Building the PERFECT Linux PC with Linus Torvalds
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN mines it for Torvalds's opinions, such as ECC RAM, AI hype, and his desktop setup, and as a rare long informal interview.
What it is
Linus Tech Tips builds a Linux PC together with Linus Torvalds, who talks through parts selection, kernel development and some of his side projects. The conversation also touches on AI in kernel work.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2025 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec andromaton · 2026-01 · on “What Happens If Torvalds' Git Repo Goes Away?”
Elijah Sandiford at Linus Tech Tips asking Linus Torvalds what happens to Linux if Linus dies. Recorded around September 2025. Aired in November. Plan made in the 2025 Maintainers Summit. Great episode: [this video]
Cites hylaride · 2025-12 · on “1GB Raspberry Pi 5, and memory-driven price rises”
Linus Torvalds was recently on Linux Tech Tips to build a new computer and he insisted on ECC RAM. Torvalds was convinced that memory errors are a much greater problem for stability than otherwise posted and he's spent an inordinate amount of time chasing phantom bugs because of it. [this video]
Cites littlecranky67 · 2025-12 · on “IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data centers will pay off”
There are so many CEOs, tech experts, financial analysts and famous investors who say we are in an AI bubble - even AI-invested companies say that about themselves. My latest favorite "We are in an AI bubble" comment comes from Linus Torvalds himself in the video with Linus from Linus Tech Tipps [0] [0]: [this video]
Cites komali2 · 2025-12 · on “Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm”
> and that’s when the Fex compatibility layer was started, because we knew there was close to a decade of work needed before it would be robust enough people could rely on it for their libraries. In a recent Linus Tech Tips video, Linus Torvalds (original Linus) was asked, "if you could go back in time and start the Linux project from scratch, what would you do differently?" He had two answers, one was "nothing," and the other was "if I knew how much work this was going to take, I never would have started this project." It makes me wonder, is there some kind of blissful ignorance required to kick off a project that will take you years to see through? How many times have I self limited myself
Cites Retr0id · 2025-12 · on “Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015 (2015)”
Linus Torvalds currently uses Fedora with GNOME, which was fun to learn because that's also been my personal choice for a while now. (source: [this video] )
Cites wyre · 2026-03 · on “Intel Announces Arc Pro B70 and Arc Pro B65 GPUs”
There was the video a little while back where LTT built a computer for Linus Torvalds and they put an Intel Arc card inside, so I'd imagine Linux support is at the very least, acceptable. [1] [this video]
Cites dataviz1000 · 2026-04 · on “AI assistance when contributing to the Linux kernel”
This is discussed in the Linus vs Linus interview, "Building the PERFECT Linux PC with Linus Torvalds". [0] [0] [this video]
Cites ciupicri · 2026-08 · on “Monitors for Work”
And 6K 31.5" is good for Linus / Linux [1] :-) More specifically the ASUS ProArt PA32QCV 31.5" [2]. [1]: [this video] [2]: [LINK]