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Open WebUI sure does pull in a lot of dependencies... Do I really need all of langchain, pytorch, and plenty others for what is advertised as a _frontend_? Doe

Open WebUI sure does pull in a lot of dependencies... Do I really need all of langchain, pytorch, and plenty others for what is advertised as a _frontend_? Does anyone know of a lighter/minimalist version?

noman-land 2y ago
https://llamafile.ai/ https://llamafile.ai/
- throwaway314155 2y ago
  I love what llamafile is doing, but I'm primarily interested in a frontend for ollama, as I prefer their method of model/weights distribution. Unless I'm wrong, llamafile serves as both the frontend and backend.
  - DrBenCarson 2y ago
    LM Studio?
  - d3VwsX 2y ago
    If I understand the distinction correctly, I run llamafile as a backend. I start it with the filename of a model on the command-line (might need a -M flag or something) and it will start up a chat-prompt for interaction in the terminal but also opens a port that speaks some protocol that I can connect to using a frontend (in my case usually gptel in emacs).
figmert 2y ago
I ran it temporarily in Docker the other day. It was a 8gb image. I'm unsure why a webui is 8gb.
lolinder 2y ago
Some of the features (RAG retrieval) now use embeddings that are calculated in Open WebUI rather than in Ollama or another backend. It does seem like it'd be nice for them to refactor to make things like that optional for those who want a simpler interface, but then again, there are plenty of other lighter-weight options.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
vunderba 2y ago
Given how much data (personal and otherwise) that you're likely going to feeding into it, I would HIGHLY recommend using an open-source chat interface like Jan. It's cross platform, works with most LLMs, and has extension support. https://github.com/janhq/jan https://github.com/janhq/jan Another alternative is LibreChat, it's more fully featured but its heavier weight and spins up quite a few docker instances. https://github.com/danny-avila/LibreChat https://github.com/danny-avila/LibreChat If you're going through the trouble of running models locally, it doesn't make sense to couple that with a proprietary closed source interface (like LM Studio).
- synapsomorphy 2y ago
  Did you misread? No one mentioned LM studio, open-webui (frontend) is open source and usually uses ollama (backend) which is also open source. Jan and Librechat are both less popular than either open-webui or ollama, how do their features compare?
- throwaway314155 2y ago
  No one had suggested LM Studio at this point in the thread.
ein0p 2y ago
Do you really care? Open WebUI has excellent UI and features, and its complexity is well hidden, IMO.
- throwaway314155 2y ago
  I agree it's a fine interface, clearly a lot of work has gone into making it polished and feature-rich. I'm simply seeking alternatives. If there aren't any with the same feature set, I'll probably just use Open WebUI.
foldl2022 2y ago
Off the topic: I am also in favor of minimalist. In the case of AlphaGeometry, I made AlphaGeometryRE to get rid of tensorflow/jax/flax, and 100+ Python packages.
xyc 2y ago
Check out https://recurse.chat/ https://recurse.chat/

noman-land 2y ago

https://llamafile.ai/ https://llamafile.ai/

throwaway314155 2y ago
I love what llamafile is doing, but I'm primarily interested in a frontend for ollama, as I prefer their method of model/weights distribution. Unless I'm wrong, llamafile serves as both the frontend and backend.
- DrBenCarson 2y ago
  LM Studio?
- d3VwsX 2y ago
  If I understand the distinction correctly, I run llamafile as a backend. I start it with the filename of a model on the command-line (might need a -M flag or something) and it will start up a chat-prompt for interaction in the terminal but also opens a port that speaks some protocol that I can connect to using a frontend (in my case usually gptel in emacs).

figmert 2y ago

I ran it temporarily in Docker the other day. It was a 8gb image. I'm unsure why a webui is 8gb.

lolinder 2y ago

Some of the features (RAG retrieval) now use embeddings that are calculated in Open WebUI rather than in Ollama or another backend. It does seem like it'd be nice for them to refactor to make things like that optional for those who want a simpler interface, but then again, there are plenty of other lighter-weight options.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

vunderba 2y ago

Given how much data (personal and otherwise) that you're likely going to feeding into it, I would HIGHLY recommend using an open-source chat interface like Jan. It's cross platform, works with most LLMs, and has extension support. https://github.com/janhq/jan https://github.com/janhq/jan Another alternative is LibreChat, it's more fully featured but its heavier weight and spins up quite a few docker instances. https://github.com/danny-avila/LibreChat https://github.com/danny-avila/LibreChat If you're going through the trouble of running models locally, it doesn't make sense to couple that with a proprietary closed source interface (like LM Studio).

synapsomorphy 2y ago
Did you misread? No one mentioned LM studio, open-webui (frontend) is open source and usually uses ollama (backend) which is also open source. Jan and Librechat are both less popular than either open-webui or ollama, how do their features compare?
throwaway314155 2y ago
No one had suggested LM Studio at this point in the thread.

ein0p 2y ago

Do you really care? Open WebUI has excellent UI and features, and its complexity is well hidden, IMO.

throwaway314155 2y ago
I agree it's a fine interface, clearly a lot of work has gone into making it polished and feature-rich. I'm simply seeking alternatives. If there aren't any with the same feature set, I'll probably just use Open WebUI.

foldl2022 2y ago

Off the topic: I am also in favor of minimalist. In the case of AlphaGeometry, I made AlphaGeometryRE to get rid of tensorflow/jax/flax, and 100+ Python packages.

xyc 2y ago

Check out https://recurse.chat/ https://recurse.chat/