3 ms·

AI is the best thing that happened to desktop Linux!

by int_19h 9mo ago

digiown 9mo ago
This actually. AI is dramatically better at helping users deal with perennial issues that Linux gets, and using the command line to fix them, compared to Microsoft's fresh new bug introduced last Tuesday or navigating anti-user GUI.
- wookmaster 9mo ago
  You’re absolutely correct what used to take me hours reading docs and googling now takes minutes to find an answer to. Just this week my new beelink I couldnt get hardware acceleration working for transcoding. A couple prompts lead me to the fact the gpu was new and I needed a newer Linux kernel. I probably would have spent hours and hours fiddling with device drivers and configs in the past.
- therein 9mo ago
  That is true but I believe he meant it as Microsoft shoving AI down your throat in every part of Windows driving people away into Linux.
- raincole 9mo ago
  That sounds... quite bad, to be honest. I never met one single Windows issue that can't be answered by simple google search for years. A desktop expecting the user to ask AI(!) for solutions that require command line(!!) is definitely not for average users.
  - WD-42 9mo ago
    Because hacking the registry or installing 3rd party de-bloat tools is for average users? You only think so because you've done it a bunch of times.
  - jwrallie 9mo ago
    High user count will make much more information available, but once in a while you will hit one bad issue that is niche enough, and your only hope will be to reach MS. At that point I'd rather deal with an LLM that know the insides of my open source OS than MS support. Have you seen their community answers on the web? I'd rather deal with Arch wiki and the command line even without an LLM.
- bbkane 9mo ago
  I've been amazed at AI's usefulness for Linux sysadmin tasks. Last week I installed KDE on a new computer with two identical SSDs. One I wanted to wipe for the OS and the other I wanted to keep the data on. Unfortunately I couldn't tell which one to install the OS on! ChatGPT helped me open a terminal and run the correct udevadm and lsblk commands to see what files existed on each disk.
  - bubblethink 9mo ago
    Good use case and an example of brokenness of UX on Linux in many small and subtle ways. It frustrates me to no end that GNOME, Nautilus, etc. will truncate or hide information in many places. I don't think this has been fixed but the launcher will truncate names with ellipsis. So analyzer will appear as "anal..."
- x______________ 9mo ago
  >AI is dramatically better at helping users deal with perennial issues that Linux gets This was my first thought. All Linux troubleshooting with AI resulted in hallucinatory commands that don't exist or work on this version of the OS, and managed to help me trash one system installation. Has anything changed?
  - subscribed 9mo ago
    A lot has changed since ChatGPT 2.0. You could give it a go again :)
thorum 9mo ago
AI for help figuring things out and Timeshift for when you accidentally break something. One reboot and it’s fixed.
bpavuk 9mo ago
given that: - AI is what gave Nvidia reason to finally work on GPU drivers (Linux is premier environment for AI/ML workloads) - LLMs are more useful on Linux than on Windows (although manuals are still unbeatable) - Windows users are sick of Copilot bullshit ...yeah, I almost agree. the best thing that happened to Linux is Valve consistently pouring a ton of resources into open-source Linux projects, but AI bubble firmly holds the second place position.

AI is the best thing that happened to desktop Linux!

by int_19h 9mo ago

AI is the best thing that happened to desktop Linux!

This actually. AI is dramatically better at helping users deal with perennial issues that Linux gets, and using the command line to fix them, compared to Microsoft's fresh new bug introduced last Tuesday or navigating anti-user GUI.

wookmaster 9mo ago
You’re absolutely correct what used to take me hours reading docs and googling now takes minutes to find an answer to. Just this week my new beelink I couldnt get hardware acceleration working for transcoding. A couple prompts lead me to the fact the gpu was new and I needed a newer Linux kernel. I probably would have spent hours and hours fiddling with device drivers and configs in the past.
therein 9mo ago
That is true but I believe he meant it as Microsoft shoving AI down your throat in every part of Windows driving people away into Linux.
raincole 9mo ago
That sounds... quite bad, to be honest. I never met one single Windows issue that can't be answered by simple google search for years. A desktop expecting the user to ask AI(!) for solutions that require command line(!!) is definitely not for average users.
- WD-42 9mo ago
  Because hacking the registry or installing 3rd party de-bloat tools is for average users? You only think so because you've done it a bunch of times.
- jwrallie 9mo ago
  High user count will make much more information available, but once in a while you will hit one bad issue that is niche enough, and your only hope will be to reach MS. At that point I'd rather deal with an LLM that know the insides of my open source OS than MS support. Have you seen their community answers on the web? I'd rather deal with Arch wiki and the command line even without an LLM.
bbkane 9mo ago
I've been amazed at AI's usefulness for Linux sysadmin tasks. Last week I installed KDE on a new computer with two identical SSDs. One I wanted to wipe for the OS and the other I wanted to keep the data on. Unfortunately I couldn't tell which one to install the OS on! ChatGPT helped me open a terminal and run the correct udevadm and lsblk commands to see what files existed on each disk.
- bubblethink 9mo ago
  Good use case and an example of brokenness of UX on Linux in many small and subtle ways. It frustrates me to no end that GNOME, Nautilus, etc. will truncate or hide information in many places. I don't think this has been fixed but the launcher will truncate names with ellipsis. So analyzer will appear as "anal..."
x______________ 9mo ago
>AI is dramatically better at helping users deal with perennial issues that Linux gets This was my first thought. All Linux troubleshooting with AI resulted in hallucinatory commands that don't exist or work on this version of the OS, and managed to help me trash one system installation. Has anything changed?
- subscribed 9mo ago
  A lot has changed since ChatGPT 2.0. You could give it a go again :)

thorum 9mo ago

AI for help figuring things out and Timeshift for when you accidentally break something. One reboot and it’s fixed.

bpavuk 9mo ago

given that: - AI is what gave Nvidia reason to finally work on GPU drivers (Linux is premier environment for AI/ML workloads) - LLMs are more useful on Linux than on Windows (although manuals are still unbeatable) - Windows users are sick of Copilot bullshit ...yeah, I almost agree. the best thing that happened to Linux is Valve consistently pouring a ton of resources into open-source Linux projects, but AI bubble firmly holds the second place position.