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#youtube #fixyoutube #linux
00:00 Intro
00:43 Sponsor: Extend the life of your PHP applications with TuxCare
01:32 Why would you want to "fix" youtube?
03:30 Alternative websites
05:54 Unofficial KZbin websites and apps
07:36 Browser Extensions
09:32 Build your own subscription feed with RSS
10:57 Combine RSS + video downloads with a script to watch on a TV
11:53 Support your creators
12:50 Final Thoughts
13:33 Sponsor: Get a device that runs Linux perfectly
14:51 Support the channel
In the free of charge department, you have Odysee and peertube. These platforms are basically like youtube, but not controlled by a big company.
Of course, their major issue is that they're not exhaustive: you're not going to find everything that's on youtube on these platforms.
Then you have paid alternatives, like nebula or floatplane. These offer high quality content, from big channels and creators, and while you have to pay to view your videos, it helps support craetors a lot more than depending on ad revenue. But these also suffer from the same problem: they don't have everything.
Another way would be to use alternative websites and applications that access youtube content, but don't belong to Google. As such, they can let you watch videos offline, remove ads, sometimes even sponsored segments, and more.
For mobile, you have applications like newpipe, Tubemaster, or Mytube, and a lot of others. They all offer a lot of things, including some youtube premium features, like letting you download videos for offline viewing, watch in picture in picture mode, better privacy, and more.
If you mostly watch youtube on your laptop or desktop, though, you're stuck with the youtube website. Some alternatives exist, but they're either super slow, don't work at all, or don't have all the videos you might want.
Next you have browser extensions. The big one will be KZbin UNHOOK. This one is meant to let you watch what you want, and just what you want. It's on chrome and firefox, and it lets you hide the "related videos" youtube displays next to the one you're watching, you can remove the comments if these annoy you or you don't want to be tempted to engage in yet another flamewar, the suggestions will also vanish, just like the homepage recommendations, the trending tab, and more.
Then there's the very famous return youtube disklibe button, if you want to see this almighty ratio for the videos you watch.
And of course, you can also just use any adblocker or tracker blocker to remove the annoying ads you don't want to see, and stay as private as can be. ANd there's something called sponsorblock, which crowdsources the time codes for sponsored segments and let you skip them automatically during video playback.
But what if you really don't want to use the youtube website? Well, you have a simpler way, a way that transcends the ages and lets you get your new videos in any client of your choice, through the magic of RSS feeds.
Every channel URL that has an ID in it is also an RSS feed, which means you can add it to any RSS client, like Feedly, or a desktop client like NewsFlash for GNOME, or THunderbird.
And if you like watching youtube videos on your TV, but don't want to use the youtube app, there's a convoluted way, but that will work nicely once it's setup.
Basically what you can do is write a script that pulls each new video from your subsciption feed that you recreated using the magic of RSS, downloads them with youtube download, and then stores them in a directory that's used by your plex server or local media center. With that script running as a cron task reglarly, you can do that in the background of your home server, and have access to all your videos when you come home, waiting for you.
github.com/darkenvy/youtube-d...

[@MIDNITE69]

This dude is willing to hurt his own income in order to stay ethical and honest. THIS is why I'm a lifelong fan of this channel.

[@tomshira5882]

IMO most decent folks inevitably get the short end of the stick these days. For myself, it is what it is, at some point i just accept that it comes with the territory of having integrity. So i struggle on. Lol

[@JeremiahExtras]

I never seen donations in comments

[@giuseppetomassi5546]

​@@JeremiahExtrasfirst time seeing it also

[@waccapacca]

The fact that you covered this topic makes me really appreciate the transparency and dedication you have towards this community. I don't normally send money through a Google service, but I felt like doing it this once.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Thank you very much :)

[@plushycatt]

It's just giving KZbin more heads up on how to make these methods redundant in the future by DMCA-ing them or changing how their API works...

[@runed0s86]

You just paid for an equivalent of 2,000,000 ads right there

[@Little-bird-told-me]

Exactly same thoughts and I did the same.

[@temari2860]

In my opinion sponsored segments are the most healthy way of doing ads. Channels usually promote something related to their content, thus creating relevant and natural ads without the need of violating user's privacy (if you're interested in the content - products relevant to the topic would be more relevant to you). Healthy personalization created out of natural community interests. Companies, Content creators and viewers all get full benefits of personalized ads with none of the ethical downsides. Also they can be contextualy integrated in the content by the creator unlike regular ads

[@pialdas6835]

I agree. The only downside to this is that smaller (but great) channels don't usually get sponsors so I can see why getting paid through ad revenue is more viable.

[@Kimarnic]

Ah yes, raid shadow legends

[@alicethegrinsecatz6011]

Nope, it's the most toxic way. I agree to your basic though of it but it's limited to the good guys. The most sponsored ads are focused on influencer with a big community to misuse the parasocial relationship between content creator and community for selling bad products. There's a huge business in this, big enough that the German public sector starts an entire channel for exposing the bad behavior behind sponsored ads. And see, they do not only exposure German influencer. They often find sponsorings with influencer from other countries too and sometimes they cooperates with channels from other countries, even from the US.

[@alicethegrinsecatz6011]

And the problem is so big, that many youth welfare offices, consumer protection centers and associations such as the German Medical Association warning about it and that the EU commission starts to plan more regulations for sponsored ads to protect customers from dangerous misinformation and pseudomedical as well as other dangerous advertising.

[@SupernovaDragon77]

You know it costs google money to run this app right?

[@meowcula]

I generally don't mind sponsored bits from youtube creators. You are a perfect example. You choose products and services that are a logical fit for your content and viewer-base. I mean Tuxedo laptops that all run linux? It's a no brainer. I *want* to hear about products like this. I can always manually skip through them, which isn't a bother either. You also make your sponsored segments as unobtrusive and friendly as possible. Basically - do sponsored segments like Nick, everyone :)

[@TheLinuxEXP]

I am very picky with sponsors, yeah

[@DRSDavidSoft]

The other problem is repetitive sponsor segments, I already know about Linode, TuxCare, etc. Watching one time in 1 video is enough for me, I don't want to re-watch the same thing on every new video. Sponsor block FTW!

[@nsa3967]

@@DRSDavidSoft SponsorBlock has been down for a few days :(

[@dyrepoliti]

I agree, I much rather have sponsored content than unskipable ads which YT MAKES me watch listen to. Thanks to adblock and Firefox on PC but on all other platforms it's yea FU google

[@DRSDavidSoft]

@@nsa3967 Yes, hopefully it won't stay down for long; I personally cannot use KZbin without it! 😅

[@CaptainLoony]

You have my respect man, you're honest

[@TheLinuxEXP]

I try to!

[@jhonyortiz5]

Dude I appreciate how real you are.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

I try my best!

[@DisposalFur]

Absolutely, always nice to have. Thinking about doing some Patreons later for my favorite creators once I have money again, and you're definitely on the list. Thanks so much mate.

[@eben_erasmus]

@@TheLinuxEXP but you get your money from the sponsor at the start and end of the video. And people in some African countries like me does not get adds at all because youtube premium is not available here and also google pay.

[@ferdonja]

@@eben_erasmus and that is somehow his fault?

[@Grant_S_M]

This, absolutely.

[@veeYTC]

Something you could have mentioned, and probably should have, is that a lot of these ad/sponsor blocking extensions like SponsorBlock have an option to whitelist the creators you would like let the ads/sponsor play by channel basis. This way your favorite creators can still get that revenue.

[@bobmcbob4399]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 Solid agreement here. I can't fathom (and do not want to fathom) why you would want any advertising.

[@frederickstienheld285]

@@bobmcbob4399 probably so your favourite content creators who do it as their job can keep an income so they can keep making videos for you to watch

[@hutch1010]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 yeah but the chihuahua makes less stinky poops and also gets paid more every time they poop

[@reinaldofernandez]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 I want to see what you have to say when all your favorite creators disappear because they cannot buy food or pay electricity and internet bills with your "like" and comments only....if someone wants to allow a little annoyance to ensure their favorite content creator doesn't go broke, does that hurt YOU? You are still more than welcome to block every ad

[@CheapBastard1988]

You can also set Sponsorblock to show all sponsor bits, but with an available skip button. That way you can watch them if they're short, interesting and creative but easily skip them if they're for Raid Shadow Legends or some other predatory practice.

[@LtData509]

You are quickly climbing to the top of my favorite KZbin creators! This one I really enjoyed thanks!

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Thank you very much!

[@theroboman727]

two very important browser extensions for me are Enhancer for youtube, and ublock origin (ad blocker) which works on youtube ads as well Side note: sponsorblock is not only for skipping sponsors. It has many other categories of content you might not want to watch, like intros, outros, sections without actual content, non music parts of music videos, and more. It also has multiple settings for what exactly the extension should do for those segments. its really good.

[@skywz]

funny seeing you here

[@jktolford8272]

Really like Enhancer for extra volume boost & ability radically increase speed. Can speed thru ad content intrinsic to video, slow down somewhat for spoken or visual info, & slow to 1x for music content.

[@nWestie]

yes, absolutely love enhancer for youtube, I mostly use it for faster and more granular speed control, I have shortcuts mapped for the speed + - buttons and can just watch things however fast is comfortable. Especially useful for skimming through lectures I'm pretty sure I know to see if there are any important tidbits

[@darknightmike10yearsago]

Yes! Those are the two extensions I could not live without.

[@gokudomatic]

Enhancer is also my way to go. It doesn't skip ads made by the youtubers themselves, but skipping the youtube ads is usually enough for me. ublock origin is also the powerful adblocker, as long as manifest v2 runs, which I completed with cookieblock, which supposedly block all "unnecessary" cookies (it's open source, at least).

[@hanb8933]

I pay for Premium and use Patreon to support the creators I like. For me, this is better than watching ads.

[@wikingagresor]

Patreon is shit, they are politically very biased towards far left and are trying totalitarian censorship.

[@sagmilling]

Same, I was actually expecting Premium to be the first option since it is the laziest way to achieve all the tasks on the thumbnail. Premium, Patreon, and Nebula.

[@runed0s86]

A dollar is about 10,000 ads that have been fully watched on youtube.

[@aximusroh6453]

I was a premium user for 12 yrs but i got sick to death of them telling me what i should watch and the fact that they removed more than half of the content creators i was subbed to since the purge began a few yrs back. KZbin is SHIT now and i cancelled premium last month. Ads are killing me atm 😭😭

[@asdf51501]

I do KZbin premium because I watch so much KZbin that it actually became worth it.

[@milutinke]

Hello Nick, if you haven't heard, there are applications that work as a proxy between a user and youtube, such as Piped and Invidious. You basically can boot up your own instance and have your own local accounts on the instance, where you have history and subscriptions, and youtube does not know anything about you. Also, they have integrated the blockers.

[@milutinke]

Forgot to mention that Piped has an API, so you can hook it up to another front end, an example would be LibreTube mobile application.

[@mikethemaker2092]

You are very appreciated. Your willingness to risk personal gain for the sake of education and enabling the digital autonomy of your audience is commendable.

[@SirLightfire]

Sponsor block feels weird for me. I don't mind Adblock, because it's just about required to browse the internet now, and while it does harm creators, it's not directly aimed at creator content. Sponsor block _does_ directly harm creators, which I don't like. However, I use it for 2 reasons. 1) I would just skip the sponsor manually anyway (double tap gang), and 2) sponsor deals are (i believe) sold as flat rate for the time slot. So, it's irrelevant to the content creator that I actually _watch_ the ad. And if the sponsor requests metrics data for monetary compensation, I'd suggest staying away from said sponsor. I really, *really* would like to use Nebula or heck, even YT Premium just to avoid ads. But alternative platforms don't have the reach, as you said. And I really dislike paying YT for features that are "client side" locked, in addition to YT being the monopolistic beast it is

[@WolfiiDog13]

I use a Firefox extension called "Enhancer for KZbin" that improves the experience of the website by a lot. It allows you to force a resolution (main reason I use it for). It also has an option to deactivate ads, but since I don't mind ads, and not enough money to support creators I like, I just leave ads on.

[@wrawler]

Same here

[@sarkybugger5009]

It's also available as a Chromium add-on. I like that it lets you allow ads on whitelisted or subscribed channels. Also, scroll wheel volume / speed control, which is very handy. It has loads of neat features.

[@bryanhobson1822]

It's the must-have KZbin extension for me, plus you can export your settings as XML, and stash them in your password manager/cloud storage.

[@tusharsnn]

Use ReVanced, dislike counter, no ads, hides shorts UI (so no shorts popping anywhere), remembers resolution you watched, offline download, pip and background play without premium, integrates with sponsorblock BTW vanced guys built it so its stable already.

[@bruhmoment2312]

But it requires root, at least on ny particular phone, and i already bricked a xiaomi once while trying to root it I ain't wasting my time on it again 😅

[@lunakittyyy]

I don't skip sponsors most of the time. Like the Newpipe team, I consider sponsors to be "ethical" advertisements since they aren't targeted to a degree that something like Google ads are

[@W4nn3]

The sponsors will not find out that their ads have not been seen. I guess they pay according to the number of views.

[@lunakittyyy]

@@W4nn3 If SponsorBlock becomes enough of a problem they'll start paying less, presumably

[@silverfoenix]

I started to block once a long documentary had frequent yellow bar every other minute!

[@PixLgams]

In recommendation marketing, this is actually known as "content-based filtering", meaning advertising done "on the store shelf", purely on mutual interests around some topic. It could be argued to be even more ethical by the fact that sponsor advertisements are included the discretion of the content creator, often with their own style woven in for a seamless experience. Compare that to "collaborative filtering" which heabily relies on other user's behavior: That's why certain meme videos can get heavily boosted by the algorithm, as it sees the growing popularity and recommends the video to more people, feeding back into itself. Although yeah, ads are annoying almost by necessity and are usually avoided by viewers whenever possible. Mass marketing seems to have trained us to mentally lock down when presented with what looks like a sales pitch.

[@-aexc-]

it's ethical to skip them cause creators lose no money for you not watching it,I don't wanna waste time on the millionth raycon, skill share or square space ad

[@FengLengshun]

For mobile, I use the new ReVance, using reisxd builder -- annoying thing is that if you include different set of patches, you need to delete the installed ReVance data before uninstalling and then reinstalling or the install will fail (thankfully patchsets from upstream has been pretty stable lately). For PC, I just don't bother changing my Brave's defaults, while using the extensions Return KZbin Dislike, SponsorBlock, and Improve KZbin. For what it's worth, I also have Premium Family so I don't feel guilty for any of that.

[@oevers]

I love Argentina because YT Premium costs around 4,5 USD. And I love VPNs...

[@victornecromancer]

ReVanced is usable already?

[@NotShaquib04]

@@victornecromancer yes, it's been like this for months now.

[@NotShaquib04]

Using ReVanced while having KZbin premium because return yt dislike and sponsor block is heavenly. And well because of premium i don't get ads anyways (not even feeds).

[@FengLengshun]

@@victornecromancer Yeah. The Manager is still alpha though, and you need to manually download the apk yourself, so that's why I'm still using reisxd's revanced-builder.

[@monkeylord2541]

I absolutely despise ads in every way, and hate how much we are bombarded with them on the daily, no exceptions. Instead I just donate a dollar or so to any videos that I ended up genuinely enjoying, or using monthly subscriptions for my favorite creators

[@oosha2000]

Same here, I get 15-20 second unskippable ads more frequently these days

[@spacenodus7959]

Upgrading to premium yt? No? You would pay less than what you would give to ur favorite videos and/or creators

[@aximusroh6453]

we are the same my friend 👍

[@starmc26]

I just pay for KZbin premium.

[@mamalujo2003]

Nick, I really like your channel and it's content. I have learned and continue to learn a lot about Linux. As for ads, I abhor the political ads that plague videos. I dislike commercials in general, especially when there are up to 20 seconds within two ads before the video begins. Worse yet are the channels that seem to have commercials setup on a 3-5 minutes cycle. Thank you for your candor and help. Keep up the good work. See you in your next video.

[@SullenSecret]

I need a confirmation: I've heard people say that hitting the "skip ad" button denies that money to the creator. If true, then KZbin is hurting its own creators with its own system. I use ad blocking because I always hit that skip button, anyway, especially since many ads are crazy long. I want to enjoy watching these great people and not be bogged down in controversy. I do acknowledge that I am creating my own controversy in the process.

[@relsre]

Good question, I'd like to know about that too. (Doesn't affect me personally though, since I always let the KZbin web player play on the lowest quality, while I watch the actual desired-quality video via an external program.

[@connormuise]

That's not true

[@AdroSlice]

Mad respect for actually mentioning SponsorBlock. LinusTechTips actually bans that word in their comments section.

[@andromydous]

I keep forgetting that YT has ads. I don't mind the recommendations too much. After all, I found this channel thanks to it. It only becomes a problem when I get a ton of recommendations for the same topic, while my channel list spans a wide variety of topics.

[@HamidKarzai]

I appreciate your honesty here, I've been watching your channel on and off but you've earned my subscription with this

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Make sure your PHP applications stay relevant for longer: bit.ly/3VnYqJn

[@AradijePresveti]

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

[@QuizmasterLaw]

example: good luck watching anything about political extremism, political violence, or current conflicts, good luck making comments about such things. it's kinda disgusting tbh like people are too stupid to figure out who is in fact one of the followers of the bad man with the small moustache. it's corporate memory hole

[@natejennings5884]

I've been a Rumble guy for a while. Odysee is pretty good too.

[@vladimir_fomin90]

freetube is the best solution

[@chomskyan4life]

You, my friend, are a disty little anarchist!✊

[@jongranada]

*looking at progress bar and seeing “browser extensions” is almost over: “of course he skips mentioning sponsorblock” Next second: *mentions sponsorblock* You are the greatest KZbinr ever.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Gotta be honest, I almost didn't include it, but it felt more fair to do so

[@jongranada]

@@TheLinuxEXP And that’s why I will never unsubscribe!!

[@PurpleSanz]

Not gonna lie, I used to be very skeptical about you, until I just saw you recommending apps like NP or browser extensions like SB (I can't use the full names because YT always deletes my comments). To see a youtuber recommending such things is so mind blowing in so many ways! You really care about your viewers, thank you so much for this video and what you do.

[@johnterpack3940]

First of all, I have the utmost respect for you for putting out this video. I was subscribed to another tech channel a few years ago that when this question came up he answered it by literally giving viewers the finger. As for KZbin-- aside from the obvious spying and social engineering problems my biggest complaint is that the service is garbage. Do you know how many times I've told them "don't show me this video again because I've already watched it"? Yet I still have videos recommended to me that I have already seen. I've even had videos recommended to me immediately after watching them. I also constantly get videos recommended to me after marking them as "not interested" multiple times. Knowing how trivial it would be to get this right makes me think they do it on purpose. Reopened my odysee account this morning. It's changed since I last looked. I'll have to explore it more. Alternative platforms are the way forward. As long as KZbin is a monopoly they will remain evil.

[@ThePaulv12]

Yeah John. The constant re-sending of vids I've marked as 'not interested + don't recommend I've watched it' content drives me insane. The other thing I hate, more than anything else, is if I watch just ONE new vid on a channel I've never seen before, the whole of that channel's content is spammed to my 'Recommended for you' feed. It drives me insane - so much so I often don't visit other channels. One thing you can do is bulk remove entire recommended vids, manually unfortunately, via the 3 dots etc but for many vids at the same time, then reload the page and scan for those vids, then repeat. It works for about a week and they do get less the more you do it. Don't 'recommend channel' and "I don't like the video' seems to better work though. Just because I like lathes and machining for example doesn't mean I want every idiot operating a lathe in my recommended vids because I tire of it. A couple every now and then is fine. I thought that was the point of Subscribing but most of the time I don't get the vids I've subbed to because of all this other utter garbage. Then there's the echo chamber effect which is about as pernicious as everything else - that is where it keeps sending you nothing but the same type of content no matter how good, bad or otherwise over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over until it drives me off KZbin and I watch TV. I like variety. It seems according to KZbin I'm in the minority. I probably sound like my father when I say this but there's 48,978 236 channels and nothing to watch half the time.

[@johnterpack3940]

@@ThePaulv12 Amen! I get soooooooooo many videos recommended from a channel after watching just a single one... while I get no notifications from a dozen channels I'm subbed to. Of course, when you subscribe to a few gun channels you know you aren't getting updated on them. Das Fuhrer doesn't like the peasants being armed.

[@kevhn]

For desktop, I use uBlock Origin + SponsorBlock. For mobile, I use ReVanced (the continuation to the original Vanced project), technically won't be able to be shut down by Google, because they don't ship the original APK and only patch it when you provide it via the manager, so it's really good. Stopped using Vanced months ago since it got shut down.

[@SidSharma108]

+1

[@John_C_J]

Does ReVanced provide a way to update their app or do we need "generate" the apk and install each time?

[@SidSharma108]

@@John_C_J we rebuild the mod through the revanced manager for each update.

[@igloosnowbal]

i appreciate you covering something that could directly harm your bottom line that's just really respectable and cool to do

[@martinkn.5161]

it's very brave of you to mention stuff like sponsor block especially, respect.

[@supervidak64]

I appreciate how honest you are and I'll disable my ad blocker for you

[@nikkehtine]

the greatest of honors

[@age4638]

Seen a few videos in the past and I like your content, this one got a subscription! thank you for the content you put out and the honesty!

[@joffreybluthe7906]

I usually skip sponsor segments but oddly enough the fact that you chose to share this with everyone made me want to sit through your sponsored bit, just in case it might earn you a bit more money than if I skipped it (I'm not sure how yt works in that regard lol)

[@betelgeuse4568]

I believe the sponsor pays him no matter if u watch it or not

[@joffreybluthe7906]

Thx for the information :)

[@anarcho.pacifist]

I think the sponsor will pay him a bit more if someone will use the promotion code.

[@blisphul8084]

I think sponsors use the promo codes as metrics, so if you use the referral link, it doesn't actually matter if you sat through the ad or not. So if you recall a content creator that mentioned a product you'll use, try to sign up from their ad to support them.

[@theodoros_1234]

Great video as always, and huge respect for making it, even though it could hurt you in many ways! Personally, I just use the dislike extension and I have a KZbin Premium subscription, which actually helps creators instead of draining their income, while also giving me access to KZbin Music (same for the other 4 people in my family plan). Honestly, I think it's partially our fault that KZbin is paywalling 4K. The bandwidth and storage it requires is expensive, and all the ad blockers we use aren't helping to pay for it. Also, 1440p and below are still free. While KZbin has pissed me off many times for their stupid decisions, this is time I kinda have to side with them. Linus made a great video explaining this. Finally, let's not forget what Google does to every project they own that isn't profitable. KZbin, with all its flaws, would be a *HUGE* loss if Google decided to kill it one day. It's a repository of so many useful videos, and pretty much holds a nice chunk of history at this point.

[@TrentonMatthews]

The good: I'm happily following this channel over on Odysee. Also good that KZbin decided to not charge for 4k. The bad: youTube Premium family subscriptions have gone up to the extreme! Same goes for Apple One subscriptions for that matter.

[@theodoros_1234]

@@TrentonMatthews yeah, it sucks that they decided to increase the price of the family plan. I'm lucky to live in a country where they didn't do that.

[@watsoft70]

Thanks for the info. The only ads I find a real pain in KZbin are the long ones that you can't click and bypass after 5 seconds and the pre-ads that you have to sit through when revisiting a video. The latter isn't much of an issue on PC, but if you are watching KZbin on a console or streaming device then often the video ends and moves on before you get chance to give it a "like", so you have to restart and watch the ads just to show your appreciation. I may of course be missing a method to avoid this, but if it's not the obvious way then it's the wrong way. ;)

[@rahulsrma26]

My first tip on youtube. Your video's are informative and helpful but it's your fairness and honesty that made me do it.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Thanks a lot!

[@Craftidore]

Hey, thanks for being willing to risk a bit of your income to bring us tips like these.

[@brodriguez11000]

Sleeping through the hunger pains. ;-)

[@ArniesTech]

To be honest, being a creator and seeing the effort going into Videos, I deliberately watch every ad of my favourite creators. 🙏

[@TheConMeister130]

Mad respect for this, especially the part about the algorithm and how it traps you in a bubble and doesn't expose you other ideas and views, this issue doesn't get enough attention. Sub earned, well done sir

[@Golem642]

Someone should invent an extension who instead of removing all of the ads, remove a part of them ! That way you will get less ads but you will still support the people you are watching!

[@theonetribble5867]

There is also KZbin Revanced for android which is getting better and better.

[@StiekemeHenk]

And if you get Vanced from the mirror host, it still works for 90%

[@Nacionarg]

This is more useful if you use devices such as tv boxes and SBCs such as the Raspberry Pi: if you install the Kodi media player, you can install its official KZbin addon which is waaaaay better than the stock KZbin app that comes with most Smart TVs. No ads, supports high resolution, its search function is much more ergonomic than TV apps, you can read comments and interact with your account in various ways. My favourite feature is that I can select external subtitle files when they are not available from KZbin, this is very handy for some channels that have old classic movies but no subtitles. The only thing that I noted is that on occasion in my Raspberry Pi the search results and recommendations are a bit diferent than on PC or my cellphone despite being logged in, no idea why and in general it doesn't affect at all the first search results.

[@tiborvegh700]

You are a hero Nick! Wonderful tips, I watched your boring Tuxedo ad in return!

[@ThisAintMyGithub]

If I wasn't already subbed, I would have subbed right here and now for this video. Absolutely awesome content and very down-to-earth!!

[@Nk-ti4st]

Hope odys brings support for automatic English captions, it will become my preferred alternative

[@abAbhi105]

I agree with every point you mentioned and I have used newpipe for almost 4 years but I also want to support the content creator which I watch and signing up separate Patreon for each creator is extremely expensive . So now i have end up buying KZbin premium And I use dislike button extension and sponsor block extension on kiwi browser for Android , it's not perfect but it's somewhere in the middle .

[@sigmawolf228]

Salam, dardaş

[@-aexc-]

even giving a dollar month has more money on Patreon

[@abAbhi105]

@@-aexc- I live in India KZbin family premium cost you 2 USD per month

[@Oakz]

Hey Nick! Thank you SO MUCH, but so MUCH for recommending the unhook extension! It will save my life. I've been binge watching youtube in detriment of my on career and health. I start my day watching some youtube videos that I've opened the day before. I do it promising to myself that after I finish this list, I'll start working. But then I've simply open more videos that youtube recommends that my curiosity can't avoid wanting to watch. I've been in this loop for almost a year now, living with my parents, after droping some projects that I've worked on, its is terrible. I just find out that I'm on my way to have diabetes, don't do any type of exercise despiting having a pool to swim at, and a big yard to do run or do some cardio. It has been really terrible. Can't thank you enough. Once I put my financial life on tracks you will be receiving a worthy donation. Thank you yet again and again!

[@oosha2000]

I wish yt would set a limit on how many ads to display a day for each user, I mean it should be 5 ads max a day. I understand that they need money but there are too many unskippable ads these days, at the beginning, middle and end of the video. I have to reopen the video every time and refresh watch history to overcome this. I have to rely on the website version on my phone to get only one. I missed the old days when no ad was a thing, I wish they came back.

[@ingframin]

You can watch KZbin videos with VLC to avoid adds

[@brodriguez11000]

Browse the internet using Lynx.

[@anarcho.pacifist]

Two alternatives to NewPipe are Libretube and SkyTube (both available on F-Droid).

[@Zobbster]

I have sponsorblock installed, but your channel is one of those firmly in the whitelist. You're doing a great job, thank you!

[@NiceIQMaz]

I cant belive how real you are dude Best video i watched in a long time Good job❤

[@jimmyscott5144]

I personally use KZbin Enhancer. I found it a while ago and it works great. They have updated it and added so many features like speed control and default player settings and playlist settings. I even whitelist channels I want to allow ads on for (yes this is one of them). Plus it has a mini player option for when scrolling comments or descriptions. I just really love it and all the features.

[@DumbSkippy]

Kudos for your great videos ! Merci Beaucoup from Western Australia.

[@Poifix]

Enhancer for KZbin is a nice extension for those who want a bit more playback control. Video filters, more playback speed options, you can set videos on loop/repeat, audio booster, you can even choose to block all ads or only allow ads from channels you subscribe too. REALLY USEFUL!

[@oevers]

RYD is not only available for Chrome and Firefox, there is also a userscript so it works with nearly every browser.

[@genemontgomery6408]

This made my day. Thanks for keeping it real, Nick.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Thanks for supporting the channel!

[@shariarrahman7562]

Nick thank you so much for this video. It gave me so many ideas ...

[@FoxyAnimater]

Fun fact, I still use vanced and the servers are still up if you have the Vanced manager. As a matter of fact, if you think with your website a little you can still get to the Vanced manager, however you may want to rely on a third party service in which we'll get you most of the way there anyway.

[@rfdiego777]

I've always tried to not use adblockers on youtube, but these last months the ads are becoming longer and longer...youtube should understand that a bearable amount of ads is the only way to keep people away from adblockers

[@aviko9560]

"bearable amount of ads" is no ads at all for me

[@rfdiego777]

@@aviko9560 ideally yes (nobody wants to see ads) but , knowing that they are a source of income for the content creators you watch, you can waste a bit of your time since we get a lot of knowledge for free

[@aviko9560]

To each of their own, I support with engangement. Since I count all my money and don't have as much free time. Time spent watching ads that are mostly totally irrelevant or annoying is worse than sitting in a corner watching paint dry since you can atleast meditate in quiet. Sometimes I want to watch youtube for a few hours and I can't even imagine that without an adblocker, I became allergic to ads. Can't drive my car unless I mute the radio everytime there's an ad and you bet that the ads are longer than the music. I use torrents to watch movies, my tv antenna is unplugged. I got used to the ad free experience that when I get one it makes me mad.

[@nabeelshaikh4404]

Nick, have you seen invidious? It is an alternative KZbin frontend for web. And the performance is quite well and it just uses KZbin as a backend without tracking/ads

[@ariathyf144]

You're a beloved youtuber Nick, this upload deserve a donation. Thanks for your recommendations. Somebody I meet on steam recommended me a YT frontend called Invidious and It impressed me not find it sooner. It's actually a page that shows what YT could be if you take all the junk out.

[@ChristopherCompagnon1AndOnly]

I have created a specific Firefox profile and tuned it perfectly to built my own experience of KZbin (in a simple web app). This is the power Firefox. Long life to Firefox !

[@Winnetou17]

I think there's something missing from this: having SOME care for the platform itself. You can make a small donation to pay your favourite creator(s), but if you constantly use KZbin with no premium and without watching ads, well, it only makes the problem worse. I don't like playing the devil's advocate, but serving videos is really expensive. Google and/or Alphabet might have a lot of money, but that doesn't mean they can actually afford to keep a platform as enourmous as KZbin to be supported by a skeleton crew of people who have YT Premium or are able to endure watching ads. I think the advertisment industry as a whole went bonkers and insane more than a decade ago, with the amounts of ads shoved down our throats, birthing the current age of ad blocking (any person with common sense would've seen this coming). And now they are getting desperate. Getting back to the point, if you use YT in any meaningful way and have the income, just get YT Premium. If you don't like giving Google your money for ethical reasons and/or also want to keep your privacy, then you should really try hard to use YT as little as possible. If Google/Alphabet don't get enough money from YT, then they will either go even more insane (I can't imagine how, but I'm sure it can be much worse) with ads or anti-ad-blocker, or they'll simply shut down the platform. In the end, they're not obligated to have it and support it, and we're not entitled to its existence or its free availability. If it would close, I wouldn't be surprised to see millions of hypocrites who used adblocking for years with no YT Premium cry that the platform is going away, with no regard for their help in it going away. I hope that Floatplane, with Linus' focus on sustainable growth, gets to be a big, reliable platform, and to also get to the point where videos can be seen for free too, in a non disgusting manner. Then it should be able to replace KZbin and we can all say our goodbyes to Google and it's privacy invasive methods. I hope Odyseey and PeerTube evolve as well. But until then, especially since we have no guarantee we'll get there, we should still think of, you know, supporting KZbin too. Since we're using it.

[@FKasa]

I completely agree. I like that he strives to use open alternatives and promotes therm everywhere he can. With this video though, I find him to be so biased that he's misleading and he's encouraging parasitism of this "big company" because "that's what they get for doing things in a way I don't like". Your computer and claiming ownership of it with open hardware and software is totally valid and admirable. Going out of your way to get all the benefits of a platform while refusing to pay for it (with your time out money) is morally not different from stealing... I would love to see him discuss this with someone that isn't part of his "bubble". I'm open for discussion 🙂

[@AcordHachi]

8:18 pitch meeting again :-)) this is the second strike

[@cogniVibes]

if you don't want to see ads on any device in your network, you can also create a pi-hole server. It blocks all ads and not just in youtube.

[@hyphen1992]

Thank you for that well rounded video.

[@iodreamify]

Respect for these useful tips! Remember people, channels like Nick's can be whitelisted on extensions like adblockers or Sponsorblock for creators you really like 😋

[@XanTheXanadul]

Unfortunatly, most RSS readers I've tried don't accept youtube channel urls as a feed. Actually, I only found one that does: NewsFlash, the one you presented in this video. I hoped gnome feeds would work too, since it even has an option for opening youtube videos in an external video player like mpv, but I guess thats just for videos that are embedded in another article.

[@MdMozammelHossain]

Thank you bro. Very transparent and honest opinion.

[@IronFractal]

FreeTube seems like a good option for desktop (no tabs yet though)

[@trbntwo]

Hey Nick normally I don't comment, but I find the Floatplane access thing rather interesting, considering Craft Computing has around 285k Subs on KZbin, which is just 64k more than you, so the threshold seems to be 250k Subs or just knowing Linus personally

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Might be! Last time I applied, I had more like 150K so maybe they'd be more open to it now!

[@RWebster325]

All content creators, no matter the platform, need to take this to heart. Wonderful segment.😊

[@danielprugger]

Much appreciated!! Thanks for your honesty. 🙏🏻 Will add your channel to my RSS news feed 😉✌️

[@jamessmith1652]

I don't block ads on KZbin. If I like the creator I'll let the ads run, if I don't then I'll skip. But I don't block, I don't think that's fair to anyone. I also find it incredible a very small group of people who think KZbin should offer their service for free without ads - who do you think pays for the servers, processing, bandwidth? I've heard 4K is not even profitable for them yet.

[@fiberologist]

And storage. Most facts about yt are mindboggling. Around 80000-200000 hours of videos are uploaded ever day. It would take one 17000 years to watch every video on yt. Videodata probably takes the most heavy toll on at least bandwidth, storage and processing (while en- and decoding). So I don't despise ads. I suppose they are necessary to keep this world wonder of the internet running. Regarding the things google already knows about me (I tried to use a de-googlified custom rom, but no thx) I'm pretty indifferent if the AI knows what products I might like. I hate a lot of ADs like everyone else, but it doesn't hurt to let one run if it seems remotely interesting. I watched a 3:47 minutes long monster of a comedy-gold AD in this video. The ADs on The Linux Experiment were pretty "enjoyable".

[@mr3sepz]

An other alternative frontend is Invidious. It is also Open Source.

[@zemonsim]

KZbin Vanced still exists, it's just harder to make it work. There is a Reddit post on their sub that explains how to set it up properly.

[@vaibhavkrkm]

I really love your Honesty!

[@emerson-biggons7078]

There is a ReVanced Project! I highly recommend getting in the discord. It functions the same as old Vanced, but from scratch and you have to patch the apps yourself (it's automated mostly). It even has Reddit, Twitter versions this time and they can't be C&D'd because they aren't actually distributing any code or service they shouldn't.

[@fivestarcrest]

Don't worry I won't install SponsorBlock

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Hahaha that's your choice!

[@skudnu5462]

he marks the sponsor segment anyways

[@GabrielFreirev]

I have it, but my favorite channels (such as this one) are always whitelisted.

[@idc6175]

Your honesty earned my sub. Thank you.

[@DJPGB]

I've never seen one of your videos before. It was the KZbin algorithm that served this one to me! I feel that YT doesn't always notify me of new videos that I've requested, so your hint about RSS feeds was the most useful for me. Thanks!

[@deersakamoto2167]

Louis Rossman (1M+ subs) said recently not watching ads doesn't really "hurt" the creator because the money the creator earns per view is so minuscule that it's almost negligible. Donation of $1 per year helps the creator a lot more than watching ads every day, no?

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Oh yeah. If you don't donate and you don't watch ads, then it's worse than if you did watch a few ads, but in the end, ads don't pay much

[@thesullivanstreetproject]

Let’s see if this video somehow gets age-restricted

[@TheLinuxEXP]

I'm fully expecting youtube to kill its momentum if it gets popular

[@World_Theory]

KZbin Unhook is a life saver. Maybe not a saver of an entire life; but bits and pieces of a life in the form of time saved from distractions.

[@Little-bird-told-me]

Thanks for making a video on youtube ethics. You are good man and good people always do well. May all you wishes come true. Love from India. Will make more donations as I make more money. Love your work.

[@jasamkrava]

are you getting some money from views on odysee?

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Very, very little. I make about 30 euros every 2 months

[@DarkGladiator]

@@TheLinuxEXP that's more than I can earn in a hundred years

[@Qgleuo]

@@DarkGladiator wtf

[@Mekuso8]

My solution has been to simply pay for KZbin Premium. Sure, Google isn't exactly the kind of company I generally like overall, but KZbin is a pretty amazing service when you pay for it. No ads, offline play, high quality, very fast loading, and it fulfills all my video watching needs essentially. I just wish good creators like TLE would get a bigger share of that money...

[@DTechDive]

yes in my country KZbin premium is actually very cheap. I pay ₹38 for my subscription which is around $0.5 . So paying is actually great but yeah once you start paying you simply can't tolerate ads.

[@infinitygod5379]

Your video got recommend to me even though this is probably my first time watching you. Ig you are doing something that people are really liking to actually get recommend to me. Good day brother

[@gergemall]

Fantastic video and content, thank you.

[@MarcCastellsBallesta]

Thanks! You showed some extension I didn't know about.

[@DennisEyke]

Your mindset impresses me!!! Awesome

[@tora201jp]

"Ethics won't feed me but I'll be able to sleep at night" -Nick, The Linux Experiment (2022).

[@truthreigns7]

Thank you for this great information. I do appreciate it.

[@RogueRen]

I've started using Vanced on my phone to fix the UI on the mobile app, but I turn off the ad block and sponsor block because I want the people I watch to make money. On my PC, Enhancer for KZbin is a god send

[@ezBlu.]

6:50 Vanced didnt get down because "it was too big for its purpose". They created an NFT of vanced, technically "profiting from youtube intelectual property" which gave them the perfect legal advantage over them, so it was the best and sweetest moment for them to send them a beautiful seize and dessist letter.

[@georg841984]

tuxedo is just what i needed thank you

[@syspangylium]

Since we're talking about ads, I have 2 questions. 1. Who gets the revenue from the ads at the beginning of a video? KZbin, the creator, or both? 2. Why do I sometimes see ads at the beginning of non monetized videos in non monetized channels? Yes, I know the channels and videos in question are not monetized. They simply don't qualify for monetization.

[@brandon_wallace]

It does make sense and it is easier to get a device with Linux installed ahead of time that trying to find hardware that is compatible with Linux. There are a lot options for computers that have Linux preinstalled now.

[@vulcanus9384]

SmartTube for AndroidTV for youtube works perfectly, it also has sponsor block.