this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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Actually to find a good distro and instructions on how to install them i recommend using an ai chatbot.
Majority of people have never created a bootable media but its easy enough ai can guide them step by step.
Or just use one of the hundreds of guides the AI was trained on.
https://www.wikihow.com/Install-Linux
I love how they make people choose their distro rather then "ubuntu or bust" they still used ubuntu for their guide but yk it doesn't matter that much
Eh, just look up a reputable YouTube channel and guide. Chatbots can randomly make dumb mistakes that a total newbie won't recognize, potentially causing them a lot of headache.
And no, I'm not one of those diehard anti-AI people. My work has its own custom GPT model and I utilize it almost daily for menial tasks. But even having it generate script boilerplate and whatnot, I sometimes notice it writing stuff that won't work and/or does it in a really verbose/weird way.
You cant ask a youtube channel what distro best suit your specific usecase.
Also realistically no one wants to sit trough a video to check out a strangers recommendation for linux.
I do get that people are worried about the incompetence of AI but this topic and procedure is so bog standard i have more faith in chatgpt doing it then a human.
If you dont believe me, try it.
Ask chatgpt/claude/gemini “How to make a bootable linux media from windows” you will have to spend a long time trying before you find it fails on something this boilerplate.
You don't need to ask, as there are tons of well made videos giving great breakdowns of the most popular distros and the pros/cons of each while also showing demonstrations of a user session within them. To me, that's far more informative than a broad, generalized typed paragraph. However, I will concede that I'm more a visual, hands-on learner, so this is subjective.
And I agree, creating a boot disk is very simple and straightforward. The likelihood of GPT/Gemini getting it wrong is low. Especially Gemini/Copilot, as they basically just regurgitate the top tech site articles in this context and will cite the links it used (e.g. stack exchange, Tom's hardware, etc). But like I said above, it can still happen, so why not just look up the source material for something so simple? I doubt any time is really saved by using AI in this instance. Not to mention, if you're more of a visual person, it's nice to see someone else give a demonstration.
To each their own, though. Neither method is necessarily the wrong/better one.
It's crazy how different people are. The idea of sitting through a video to do something like this is so painful to me. Like I find it useful for physical things where seeing the motion can be helpful, but I still generally find doing things that way awful. Please, please, please just give me written instructions for things. Especially if I'm going to need to refer back to it a few times (e.g. there are multiple steps that take a bit of time).
It depends on the context for me. Repairing/replacing something on like my lawnmower or car? Video all the way. A simple CLI command/process? A quick write-up is often preferred for me.
You quickly can skim text for relevance to your needs/situation, hard to do that with a video.
Do chatbots provide accurate and safe instructions for all steps? Or will it mix different instructions for different scenarios?
Ai is not that good unless it's like hugginchat where it scraps sites for info and stuff
I dislike AI but I think you’re unfairly downvoted. I find it helpful for ensuring I’m taking care of necessary steps in a common, low-stakes procedure. It’s useful to generate sequences of terminal commands as well, though it’s important to check and understand what you’re doing.
People are right to be worried and skeptical about AI
I honestly have gotten to hate how incompetent it often is because i do regularly try to squeeze something actual intelligent from it.
But other then that its like you said. Its very good for Low stake, common, boilerplate procedures and providing clear personalized instructions for non-techies. (and forgetful nerds).
Credit where credit is due & can’t argue with results.