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Both Ubuntu and Fedora have made it official: support is coming soon for running local generative AI instances.

An epic and still-growing thread in the Fedora forums states one of the goals for the next version: the Fedora AI Developer Desktop Objective. It is causing some discontent, and at least one Fedora contributor, SUSE’s Fernando Mancera, has resigned.

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[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 95 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

They're discussing a new spin specifically for AI developers, not changing existing distros to include new stuff.

CTFD

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 44 points 2 weeks ago

Oh good. We can all just ignore the AI version then?

[-] Mosfar@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 weeks ago
[-] garbage_world@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

No we can't, we must be mad, because "AI"

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

This guy social medias

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

It's Linux, you always could ignore any software that you don't want

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 weeks ago

Well, we get to slam it and heckle its users, because, well, we need SOME joy in The world...

[-] Smoogs@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Right. It is Linux after all. Not microslop

[-] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 41 points 2 weeks ago

I think it is good to have optional support for local models that lets people use them in an offline and private and easy way. There is a lot of non technical folks using linux nowadays and many chose it for privacy and greater control over their data.

Depending on the implementation it could hook into certain os contexts and events to actually be helpful.

Either way I don't see the cat going back in the bag with regards to LLMs. That being said I run Debian everywhere except my work machine which is ubuntu.

[-] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

In this case, the "bag" is a sucking black hole, and venture capitalists are throwing physics-defying amounts of money in it to drag the LLMs out. As soon as they stop that, the "cat" goes back in the "bag".

Local LLM models are an exception, but they are also atrocious by comparison. Most users will get some limited utility from an LLM if they had one, maybe, but it is being accommodated and foisted everywhere like its the invention of the mouse. It is nowhere near as paradigm shifting, but is being hyped, advertised, and marketed more aggressively than any product in history. So, the roaring hype makes everyone think that if they don't get on board too, they'll be left in the dust, so now well-meaning projects are getting bloated up for it too.

Many of us just want this technology to get the fuck away from us until it is worth using or dies already. Is that so very much to ask?

[-] CheerfulPassionFruit@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Using an llm mondel that isn't super advanced is actually quite freeing in my opinion, the generated output is always mediocre at best, but it's usually good enough for boilerplate and can be decent if you need to unstuck yourself. It also isn't good enough to lull you into just letting the llm do all the work for you since it makes obvious mistakes.

[-] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

"It's just good enough for some things once in a while, but is too bad to rely on in any serious way," doesn't sound like a great use of my electricity, but I guess I've wasted electricity on less. Still, doing it on purpose seems worse.

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[-] RiverRabbits@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago

Preemptive compliance to the tech fascism of the US?

What a ridiculous and spineless way to live.

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[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 36 points 2 weeks ago

-The system image will not be pre-configured with applications that inspect or monitor how users interact with the system or otherwise place user privacy at risk.

-Tools and applications included in the AI Desktop will not be pre-configured to connect to remote AI services.

-AI tools will not be added to Fedora’s existing system images, Editions, etc, by the AI Desktop initiative.

  1. It's a new system image, your Fedora and Ubuntu installs will not be modified.
  2. The applications that would have privacy implications will be opt-in by default.
  3. It will not use remote AI unless you configure it to.

I don't see the problem.

[-] potustheplant@feddit.nl 10 points 1 week ago

Of using resources to implement a "feature" that users have already expressed they don't want? Weird, I do.

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The users would be the people who choose to install the new system image. The system image which will be created by a group of people who volunteer to create it.

If you're not using the new system image then this doesn't affect you at all.

The only opinions that matter here are the ones of the people who are choosing to donate their time to the project. If you think that more development time should be allocated to one project over another then you are free to volunteer your time in order to make that happen.

You are not free to volunteer the time of other people, however.

[-] PotatoPie@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

Add opt in commercials as well that pay the users in AI tokens, and opt in system for selling data on your OS to Palantir that pays user in stocks of Israeli arms dealers, give the users freedom of choice, no problem still \s

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

/s

Oh, I like this game.

You're right, if you take something actually happening in reality and append a scary fabricated scenario then it sound scary.

What an interesting new discovery, I hope nobody tries to apply this in reality. Completely unrelated, Have you considered a career in politics?

I apologize to the community for lacking the paranoid delusions required to see how a project staffed by volunteers who are creating a system image which users have to choose to install was actually part of a plot by the Illuminati to force people to sell their soul to the Antichrist.

As a unwitting tool of The Man, I throw myself at the mercy of the community's judgement. Please scourge me most thoroughly so that I may repent from my evil ways of observing reality as it appears.

[-] mrmaplebar@fedia.io 30 points 1 week ago

Always pretty funny to see the FOSS community willingly follow the lead of corporate investment trends, but for fractions of pennies on the dollar compared to big tech.

If you're gonna act like Microsoft you might as well do it for the money.

[-] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

To be fair, those two distros are owned by big corporations so it’s not unexpected.

[-] ejs@piefed.social 29 points 2 weeks ago

lol they already support running local models. wtf is the distro gonna do…? pre-install llama.cpp? this is so silly to me that people are resigning over this, too.

[-] Gork@sopuli.xyz 17 points 2 weeks ago

Is that the one that really whips the llama.cpp's ass?

[-] luthis@lemmy.nz 10 points 2 weeks ago

Now I have to install winamp and get a bunch of sick skins for it.

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[-] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago

What’s wrong with just installing ollama?

[-] CerineArkweaver@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 2 weeks ago

I mean if it's completely optional and opt-in, sure go for it. Knock yourself out. I won't be using it (my computer isn't powerful enough to run local LLMs)

[-] its_kim_love@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 2 weeks ago
[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago
[-] plz1@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

FWIW, LM Studio makes it incredibly easy to do this. I've been in tech for decades, and there are probably only a couple of suggestions I"d made to the LMS team if they wanted to target a broader, less tech savvy user base, but I think they already have their target demographic covered. I imagine the Ubuntu and Fedora crowds are already tech savvy, but vendors making it easier to ween reliance off tech giants' LLMs isn't a bad thing, if LLM's are here to stay.

Now the one thing that will turn me off to initiatives like this is if these OS vendors restrct which model can be used, or make it more friction not to use their "chosen" default. Like Google just did by pushing What I"m assuming was Gemma 4 E2B to Chrome users. I figure Google wants to offload the LLM usage to local compute to take the load of their data centers, and since Chrome is already a data harvesting tool for them, there was no downside to their operations.

[-] woelkchen@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

SUSE contributes to Fedora? WTF?

[-] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 weeks ago

Someone from SUSE used to contribute to Fedora

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

not anymore. IBM decided a few years ago that they don't want grubby fossy fingers in their pie.

kind of makes me question why anyone who supports the foss part of Linux would continue to use fedora or any IBM product.

I say this as an ex fedora fanboy.

fuck IBM.

[-] magnue@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

I don't really understand the point? You can already do a lot on Linux using AI via CLI with bash.

[-] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'm not a fan, but obviously, AI on the desktop is not about the CLI and bash, which are not the desktop.

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[-] mokey@therock.fraggle-rock.org 6 points 1 week ago

FOMO is a thing. Who’s gonna want to run the old version packaged in the distro anyway. Those things go stale pretty quickly, especially at the rate we’re seeing updates in local inference.

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[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago

Im actually fine with this but its got to be gpl all the way and it should be like runlevels. install console only, install graphhical, install llm supported.

[-] RiverRabbits@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago

This isn't a "ghost in the machine". This is "introducing rot directly into the core of the machine".

Time to boycott all ubuntu and fedora derivatives and distributions. Fuck AI!

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this post was submitted on 10 May 2026
146 points (91.5% liked)

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