Unfortunately AI has gotten ahold of several projects so it’s not as easy to ignore. And with Linux itself being on the list, it seems the time comes for the community to migrate to Haiko or BSD.
The reasons people use Linux are for qualities other than the ones affected by AI use. AI use has implications for code quality, correctness, and security. But none of those are why people use Linux. People use Linux over BSD or other Unixes because Linux supports the most hardware, has the biggest software ecosystem, and being a monolithic kernel is much easier to get up and running with lots of hardware without needing to install separate drivers. Those qualities still need to be addressed by BSDs or whatever alternatives before people will start migrating from Linux.
I say this as someone who regularly uses and enjoys an OpenBSD machine. I couldn’t use it as my main machine because it just doesn’t have the same software availability and plug-and-use hardware support as Linux. Porting software to a new target is not a trivial task for most users. I package a few things for the AUR and that’s much easier as the software already supports x86_64 Linux; I just have to write a script to install it. I think OpenBSD is a nice OS but I highly doubt Linux users will migrate any time soon. Think about how many people were clinging onto X11 because Wayland didn’t support their super specific workflow. And a migration to an entirely different OS would be worse.
i usually use freebsd (haven’t tried openbsd yet…) and its linux binary compat is almost perfect, it surprisingly just works for most things although there are some rough edges as a desktop.
How’s the firmware support/availability? For things like graphics tablets, graphics drivers, etc?
I don’t think OpenBSD has binary compat with Linux but most Linux software should just need a recompile for BSDs—I’m discouraged from porting given that when it’s not a simple recompile I’d have much less idea what to do.
I don’t expect it to “go away”. It was around long before ChatGPT and it’ll be around long after it. I’m just crossing my fingers that the bubble pops sooner rather than later so we can just go back to it being just a nonsense marketing term instead of the thing people are talking about every 5 seconds, for whatever reason.
But besides, that, both. Ive been yelled at that AI is the second coming of Jesus nonstop for the last 4 years. And every time I’ve given it an ounce of consideration, it massively disappoints. And so now I want to stick my head in the sand until those people STFU.
I think the whole market hinges on what is essentially a “false dawn”. People think “we’re so close” and some innovation is right around the corner that’s going to suddenly make it useful, but I don’t think its coming. I think we’re probably 20+ years away.
It reduces the foothold available for AI-free projects, in particular once “big enough” projects like Firefox or Linux get infected. Since there is significant inertia to switching to, or even developing, an alternative (a web browser might have been casual dev in 1998; right now it almost requires a Corporation to coast the development). Also it normalizes the idea of having AI in development, which is in itself dangerous.
They list iTerm2 as affected but list Linux-specific terminal emulators only as replacement even if there are plenty of those on MacOS. At this point I think those lists are prepared by LLM boosters too.
Unfortunately AI has gotten ahold of several projects so it’s not as easy to ignore. And with Linux itself being on the list, it seems the time comes for the community to migrate to Haiko or BSD.
The reasons people use Linux are for qualities other than the ones affected by AI use. AI use has implications for code quality, correctness, and security. But none of those are why people use Linux. People use Linux over BSD or other Unixes because Linux supports the most hardware, has the biggest software ecosystem, and being a monolithic kernel is much easier to get up and running with lots of hardware without needing to install separate drivers. Those qualities still need to be addressed by BSDs or whatever alternatives before people will start migrating from Linux.
I say this as someone who regularly uses and enjoys an OpenBSD machine. I couldn’t use it as my main machine because it just doesn’t have the same software availability and plug-and-use hardware support as Linux. Porting software to a new target is not a trivial task for most users. I package a few things for the AUR and that’s much easier as the software already supports x86_64 Linux; I just have to write a script to install it. I think OpenBSD is a nice OS but I highly doubt Linux users will migrate any time soon. Think about how many people were clinging onto X11 because Wayland didn’t support their super specific workflow. And a migration to an entirely different OS would be worse.
i usually use freebsd (haven’t tried openbsd yet…) and its linux binary compat is almost perfect, it surprisingly just works for most things although there are some rough edges as a desktop.
How’s the firmware support/availability? For things like graphics tablets, graphics drivers, etc?
I don’t think OpenBSD has binary compat with Linux but most Linux software should just need a recompile for BSDs—I’m discouraged from porting given that when it’s not a simple recompile I’d have much less idea what to do.
Why does that matter?
This website linked in the post you replied to lists a bunch of reasons.
Those all seem like great reasons to ignore AI…
When you say ignore AI, do you mean stick your head in the sand and hope it goes away or actively avoid interacting with AI and AI based projects?
I don’t expect it to “go away”. It was around long before ChatGPT and it’ll be around long after it. I’m just crossing my fingers that the bubble pops sooner rather than later so we can just go back to it being just a nonsense marketing term instead of the thing people are talking about every 5 seconds, for whatever reason.
But besides, that, both. Ive been yelled at that AI is the second coming of Jesus nonstop for the last 4 years. And every time I’ve given it an ounce of consideration, it massively disappoints. And so now I want to stick my head in the sand until those people STFU.
I think the whole market hinges on what is essentially a “false dawn”. People think “we’re so close” and some innovation is right around the corner that’s going to suddenly make it useful, but I don’t think its coming. I think we’re probably 20+ years away.
“Stolen”
Who has had their stuff taken away from, in a way that they don’t have it anymore?
“But copying is actually exactly like plundering a whole ship” - RIAA
Copyright crusaders have always been pathetic bootlickers of capitalist middlemen parasites who enclose the commons and then demand ransom.
It reduces the foothold available for AI-free projects, in particular once “big enough” projects like Firefox or Linux get infected. Since there is significant inertia to switching to, or even developing, an alternative (a web browser might have been casual dev in 1998; right now it almost requires a Corporation to coast the development). Also it normalizes the idea of having AI in development, which is in itself dangerous.
They list iTerm2 as affected but list Linux-specific terminal emulators only as replacement even if there are plenty of those on MacOS. At this point I think those lists are prepared by LLM boosters too.