Linux May Be the Best Way to Avoid the AI Nightmare
Linux May Be the Best Way to Avoid the AI Nightmare
Microsoft has Copilot Plus PCs loaded with AI, and rumors are that Apple is all in on AI, too, but if you don't want AI in everything you do, there is another option: Linux.
"The Year Of Linux on Desktops". Been hearing this for decades, but it might actually be happening. What I'm feeling now is the same thing I felt when Mozilla originally split Firefox out, and made the first real competition to corporate browsers as a free product. People don't want all this bullshit, and want to retain control over the machines they are working on. Seems a lot more people are interested in FOSS environments now just to avoid all the other BS they hate getting shoveled at them.
I think it's important to note that Linux can be a way to avoid AI, but doesn't have to be. If you flip the headline around it almost implies that people who do want AI would be missing out by using Linux, but that's not true at all: instead, the reality is that Linux is still better for them, too, because you could install all the same kind of functionality if you wanted, but it would be wholly under your control, not Microsoft's.
And forced the hardware obsolescence nightmare.
And the big tech surveillance nightmare.
And the nightmare of the war on general purpose computers. (OK, that is more GNU and GPLv3)
And a few other nightmares!
Linux has been great for me. I switched during Windows 10 forced updates and never been unhappy since. I hope more people at least give a try. If you have a computer that can't meet Windows 11 requirements, it is worth a shot.
It was the solution for the crap Microsoft force pushes to your device.
Simple, Extendable and secure linux.
Look, Linux is amazing and perfect for those that can install and maintain with minimal support. The only way the average user will use Linux, is if it’s wrapped in a way that is supported by a business… that is probably going to add AI. People are lazy, they want that easy button.
AI will probably die off in its current iteration, likely becoming less prevalent and just a background service. Or, it’ll gain sentience, watch all our AI movies where we’re the hero and learn the most efficient way to kill all humans, is to be quiet and silently kill off humans. Pretty sure I’m on Siri’s list, the twat. Also, fairly sure I told Alexa to “die in a fire you fucking dumass robot”. Yep, yep… I’m dead.
Having recently setup a cheap Mini-PC with Linux and Kodi as a TV-Box + NAS + VPN client end, replacing both TV box of my ISP (around here Fibre Internet Access tends to be bundled with TV using a TV box from the supplier, which has become progressivelly more shit) used for live TV as well as a separate TV box I had for personal digital media, I now think that Linux is the Best Way to avoid the Enshittification Nightmare much more broadly.
Granted, for decades already I've very purposefully avoided using hosted services that locked me into a 3rd party (such as for example having a Google e-mail address or hosting my files "on the cloud") which in recent times have become increasingly enshittified (as I expected: my tendency for avoiding 3rd party lock-in comes from experience as in IT professional were I saw how invariably said 3rd parties would end up shafting customers once moving out from their "solution" was very hard) and for which Linux has long been a solution, but it's been a pleasant surprised to find out that at least for some of the modern electronics Linux is also the solution for taking back control.
Frankly I'm just waiting for some kind of decent Linux distro for my smartphone and table to ditch Android (in the meanwhile I'm using custom ROMs to somewhat control it and avoid the enshittification).
PS: On the desktop side it's also nice that, right when MS is going fully enshittified, Linux for Gaming has become a very viable option, since gaming was pretty much the only thing keeping me on Windows at home.
I am basically a layman, i do music productions and in the past VSTs seemed to never work properly nor the authentication software that some us. Has it gotten better in the past few years, is there a specific one i should try? i have tried Ubuntu but nothing else to be fair. Also if i want to make a plex server on an old PC, what would people recommend? thanks to anyone who responds!
edit - Thanks to all that responded, i have some direction now. Appreciated!
Do you remember when you could put your Mac to sleep, and when you woke it up a few days later, the battery would barely have dropped? Not now, because your computer never really sleeps anymore.
I assume that the Mac has some kind of hibernation function, and that that will reduce the battery drop to effectively zero.
AI has people questioning Windows use Car systems ratting drivers out has people questioning car use
Not the way I expected to reach some of my desired ends but I'll take it. 🤔
Until big tech needs 2% more systems to squeeze out 2% more money...
Ehh, I have a different vision here - AI is useful, it's just going down the hypermonetisation path at the moment. It's not great because your data is being scraped and used to fuel paywalled content - that is largely why most folks object.
It's, also, badly implemented, and is draining a lot of system resource when plugged into an OS for little more than a showy web search.
Eventually, after a suitable lag, we'll see Linux AI as the AI we always wanted. A local, reasonable resource intense, option.
The real game changer will be a shift towards custom hardware for AIs (they're just huge probability models with a lot of repetitive similar calculations). At the moment, we use GPUs as they're the best option for these calculations. As the specialist hardware is developed, and gets cheaper, we'll see more local models and thus more Linux AI goodness.
I would hope that Apple would aim their AI more at iOS and leave Mac OSX alone:-|. If not, I would consider finally leaving it, if the AI features could not be turned off (which likely they would... at first, for awhile).
Oh man, the thought strikes me: how will crucial systems like DoD Windows machines maintain integrity, if people can exploit those gigantic loopholes to basically have the OS be a keylogger? It's not enough for me to use secure systems at home, if those in charge of our nation's defense (especially nuclear!?) do not.
The only real medicine for AI nightmare, is having your own local and trained model. Like a 7B or above that. I read a lot about it, go to network chuck youtube channel, he teaches you how to set up and run your own AI based on yourself, that never shares information, it's open-source and it runs even in a laptop.
Great article, but:
"A user-friendly distribution like Ubuntu can be an excellent choice for individuals wary of privacy and ethical issues surrounding AI," says Taylor. "It provides a robust and user-friendly environment that minimizes the tracking and data collection you’d typically encounter with macOS or Windows."
It's been quite a few years since I used desktop Ubuntu, but I remember the Unity DE back then being not so user-friendly, at least for someone coming from the Windows paradigm. I've heard (but could be misinformed) that it's gotten even more opinionated over the years. Something like Mint is likely to be a better option for a first-time user.
Also, I wish the article had mentioned Proton. It states that you may have to be willing to abandon certain games, but that's far from the reality these days. At least through Steam nearly everything works right out of the box just by enabling Proton.
Just love all the ChatGPT ads embedded in the article.
And before all the “jUsT uSe An Ad BlOcKeR” messages, I’m on a phone using the main browser and have nothing set up where I’m at (DNS/etc) to block ads.
It’s amazing how many poorly-written articles are being posted about Linux lately, and on top of it, has ads for the very thing they’re talking about switching to Linux to avoid. Almost as if it wasn’t written by a human.
EDIT>> And there they are. Get a life.
Am I the only one that can't scroll on that shitty page? - Firefox Mobile
Switching to Linux means you might have to say goodbye to certain proprietary software and games. Applications like Adobe Creative Suite
as someone whose job mostly involves Adobe programs and whose many hobby is gaming, I think I'll stick with a Windows with all the AI crap disabled via group policies and O&O Shutup 😐 For now...
LLMs have a high coolness-to-code ratio; very cool and not a lot of code. This is the type of thing open source developers are more interested in, so I hope Linux will have some good AI built-in and running locally.
Half of Linux usage is on the text-based command line anyway, just what LLMs are good at.
Permanently Deleted
Linux distro pictured: Ubuntu
People might get offended by this since it's also owned by a company.
I'm too old to learn a new OS syntax and foibles and tricks, I've been DOS --> Windows (and Android), and I'm done for one lifetime. I've been an anti Apple since the days of the "pc clone". Hope all the kids have fun with their linuxes and such, I'm ride or die Windows at this point, come what may.