utopiah

I've done a bash script and a KDE shortcut for that a while ago. I didn't even remember it until now. It's useful sometimes.

Like... now? Here are my notes about it https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/SelfHostingArtificialIntelligence

You don't even need to wait for "AI" chips, "just" a high-end GPU will do.

Sure they are very very large models like Mistral or BLOOM you won't be able to run even on a 4090 (highest end gaming card right now) but there usually have lower quality versions that might give usable result.

IMHO though what I realized while testing all that at home is... it's rarely worth it. It's absolutely fun to play with, even interesting to learn about it all, but in terms of time/energy/ecology/costs versus result, so far it's been "meh". A cool experiment, like locally get transcript for my PeerTube server from the audio of my videos, but something that in fine I always end up not relying on.

It also allows me to do cool prototype, like code generation in XR, but again that's something I'd qualify as fun, not as productive.

TL;DR: it's feasible today but IMHO not worth it.

PS: best example would be Immich with it's optional ML, locally or not (as in serving content on a small Pi but doing the ML inference on your desktop)

It's for tinkerers yes but the RPi is popular because they try to facilitate the tinkering process. That means a lot of people will buy it in order to learn. That's precisely why they sell the RPi400 and RPi with introductory books.

It's not the same audience that'll by a RPi5 without a case or compute modules.

Because it's cheaper (barely but still), smaller (fits right into the Pi and its case) and more convenient (no adapter). When one just got a Pi that might even be sold with a microSD then they'll use that.

I'm not arguing it's the right thing for data intense usage but the "why" IMHO is pretty obvious.

FWIW ThinkPad is not IBM anymore. I assume it's obvious but just in case it's not 100% clear, a Chinese company (Lenovo) bought the brand 2 decades ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad

I'm not arguing that the quality or Linux support changed since then, just make it explicit in case somebody might ride on the nostalgia of once great hardware devices.

PS: I rocked an X31 with ratpoison a while ago, before the times of MacBook Air and I was convinced I was pretty cool.

Is Linux pretty much unusable with an Nvidia GPU?

So clickbait title?

Not my experience at all. Running :

• Ubuntu 23.10
• NVIDIA 525.147.05
• latest Steam stable (1705108172) with latest Proton

and I have been playing "flat" and VR games with no tinkering for years now. I honestly spent at most 1h on drivers or compatibility since I bought my desktop. In fact thinking back I probably spent more time on Windows years ago than now.

True but there are also DMZ options that allow to expose an entire machine. I imagine someone who is not familiar with networking or firewalls might "give up" and use that "solution" if they don't manage to expose just the right port on just the right machine. I'm sure I did that at some point when I was tired of tinkering.

Also if the single port that is exposed has vulnerabilities, then scanning the other ports might not be necessary. If the vulnerability on the opened port allow some kind of access, even without escalating privilege (i.e no root access) maybe localhost queries could be made and from there maybe escalating on another service that wouldn't be exposed.

Finally on your initial question I'd argue if the firewall rules are equivalent then it would be equivalent but if they are a bit more refined than "just" open or close a port, e.g drop traffic that is not from within the LAN, so a specific subnet, then it might still create risk.

Indeed was my first thought when I didn't see on the list.

When you expose ports to the Internet. It's honestly interesting to setup a Web server with the default page on it and see how quickly you get hits on it. You don't need to register a DNS or be part of an index anywhere. If you open a port (and your router does forward it) then you WILL get scanned for vulnerabilities. It's like going naked in the forest, you sure can do that but clothes help, even if it's "just" again ivy or random critters. Now obviously the LONGER you run naked or leave a computer exposed, the most likely you are to get a bad bug.

So I could recommend a distro, as you asked (which would be Ubuntu) but instead I believe what's better is making the switch... small!

In practice that means safety net and familiarity all around :

• backup your data
• backup your data... and not, that's not a mistake, truly do it, now. Before you try something new, and scary. In fact... don't touch your computer, get another one, a cheap one like a RPi4 or a relatively old laptop that a colleague hasn't used for years.
• copy, don't move, your data to whatever distribution you picked
• ideally have a dedicated hard drive in there for JUST the data, NOT the OS
• play... have fun, truly. Try to use YOUR data, I mean the copy you have now that you don't even care if you lose, and try to use them with the stock software that comes with your distribution, e.g OpenOffice or Blender or Kdenlive, or whatever you are into
• delete it all! Don't be afraid, you can do it, you have copies anyway
• do it, again, again, keep a logbook or wiki or .doc file where you write down what you learn
• rinse and repeat

this way you should find YOUR distribution in no time and you won't be afraid of messing up!

Honestly it's a fun adventure. I've been learning Linux and CLI tools decades ago and I'm still learning to this day so do not assume there is one solution you can find today and move, it's a process, a long one, but a really empowering one IMHO.

I didn't try it (because I didn't have the need for it yet) but maybe https://wiki.winehq.org/Hardware#USB could help.