There is one you can install via Flatpak. That will work in most distros.
Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
11–20 of 64 posts
Re: Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
#12Not as far as I know, but llamafiles are almost easier to get running than native packages.
Re: Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
#13None. Microsoft has Copilot in preview mode in Windows and it's not very integrated apart from a chat window. I doubt GNOME/KDE will be able to dedicate enough resources to adding an assistant that is well integrated with the desktop environment any time soon. A search in Fedora yields a single GSoC project[0] limited in scope to NetworkManager and it's not clear if anyone actually is working on that. If the use case…
> I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a native Linux AI-assisted assistant. On Mac when I press Command + Space, it brings up Spotlight search That can't easily be added to be the equivalent of some kind of LLM prompt on GNOME/KDE/XFCE? I don't quite know what you'd ask it/do with it that would be of much value? Seems like a quicker way/a wrapper around either asking an LLM questions via CLI or basically Electron w…
> That can't easily be added to be the equivalent of some kind of LLM prompt on GNOME/KDE/XFCE?
Both GNOME and KDE have that already. Shouldn't be too hard to implement what you're thinking if the APIs/services are available.
Re: Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a native Linux AI-assisted assistant. On Mac when I press Command + Space, it brings up Spotlight search That can't easily be added to be the equivalent of some kind of LLM prompt on GNOME/KDE/XFCE? I don't quite know what you'd ask it/do with it that would be of much value? Seems like a quicker way/a wrapper around either asking an LLM questions via CLI or basically Electron w…
> That can't easily be added to be the equivalent of some kind of LLM prompt on GNOME/KDE/XFCE? Both GNOME and KDE have that already. Shouldn't be too hard to implement what you're thinking if the APIs/services are available.
Or wrap to a shell script if the LLM has a local "CLI" interface, right?
Re: Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
#15One thing about LLMs is that they are 6GB+ (and much larger for "smart" ones) just sitting in the background. They suck power and produce heat like nothing else, and they are finicky, especially at smaller sizes.
Running one as a background desktop assistant is whole different animal than calling a Microsoft API.
Re: Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
#16Shameless plug: I’m writing one for Ubuntu Touch and I’m planning on adding a desktop version as well.
My frontend side is very weak so it’s going to be very barebones but contributions are welcome once it’s stable:
Re: Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
#17Why? They take lots of space and lots of computing power. Linux has always been about lightweight and a bundle only containing essential things. You can always install one if you need it but as it stands right now LLMs are not useful enough to warrant their bundling in a distro. Just my 2 cents
Re: Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
#18Not bundled in a distro-specific way, but ollama fairly straightforward to install and use:
Re: Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
#19Linux options (possibly not bundled) from another thread
Re: Ask HN: What AI assistants are already bundled for Linux?
#20Unrelated, but is there something like Bonzi Buddy for linux? Not the spyware part, just the friendly looking clippy-esque character that can tell you about your new e-mails, weather, or whatever? I kind of wish I had something like that.
Closest I can think of is xeyes.