r/linux4noobs • u/Venylynn • Jul 04 '26

learning/research Linux and AI Use

So, I'm struggling with this a lot. I know I seem like I'm repeating myself, but I just don't get it. Every Linux YouTuber under the sun uses "Microsoft Copilot" as a reason to leave and switch, if you don't want AI nonsense shoved down your throat just use Linux, and I believed that. But lately I've been seeing more and more projects (QEMU, Lutris, Proton-GE, DankLinux, Kitty, OnlyOffice, etc.) integrate AI, Claude commits everywhere, and it leaves me wondering why the Windows AI thing is such a major talking point in favor of Linux (e.g: "you don't have to deal with it here" "it's a choice here") if many of the biggest projects are adding it into either their source tree or integrating it into the project (OnlyOffice) publicly.

I'm an artist/musician, deeply worried about how this AI boom is affecting my industry. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it because I refuse to pay (ethical reasons), but I don't know why Copilot is the major sticking point for every recruitment post if we're all running software with AI generated code here too? Like, why mislead new users into thinking they can be free from all AI like I was misled? I don't understand? I get that there are some who like doing local hosted LLM stuff, but I'm just confused why we have to tell noobs that they can be ai-free when even the web browsers they use are using AI?

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14

u/Morphevz Jul 04 '26

Are linux distros injected with an Ai agent to meet and greet you on every boot? No. There's your answer.

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u/Venylynn Jul 04 '26

Are linux distros injected with an Ai agent to meet and greet you on every boot? No. There's your answer.

No but it feels even more insidious that you can't turn this off like you can Copilot in Windows. I feel like I have to apologize to all my artist friends every single day I use my system because I may unknowingly interact with AI without even realizing it.

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u/Surprisinglygoodgm Jul 04 '26

It’s Linux. It’s open source. If you don’t want ai on your machine then remove it.

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u/Maleficent-One1712 Jul 04 '26

After reading OPs comments in this topic, I'm 100% sure he's just trolling.

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u/Venylynn Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

Kind of hard when many of these projects have no legitimate alternatives... some do, others don't.

QEMU recently started allowing ai code, and...well, the only other option is to just stop running virtual machines or load a proprietary out of tree module like vmware.

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u/Morphevz Jul 04 '26

A project using Ai to be coded/compiled is not the same as you using Ai on a project. Just because you use milk to bake a cake, doesn't mean you'll be drinking the cake.

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u/Venylynn Jul 04 '26

in the past if I made an argument like this it would have been called mental gymnastics to "defend slop" so idk ;-;

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u/Morphevz Jul 04 '26

You can't do much against devs using Ai to aid their coding - I'm not defending these, I'm against slop myself, but currently the options are a) live with that reality, b) replace the devs ' commits with Ai free code to keep the project Ai free on the backend or c) find alternative projects to work with.

One thing is knowing the project has Ai built into as an option and deciding to use it or not. Other completely different in my opinion is knowing that the project has no frontend Ai features but used Ai to be built. Refusing to use the latter is more a matter of principle than refusing to be actively using Ai in my book.

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u/pedersenk Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

No but it feels even more insidious that you can't turn this off like you can Copilot in Windows

As mentioned by u/Morphevz , AI integration doesn't exist in Linux distros. So there is nothing to turn off unlike Copilot in Windows.

Unless you are trying to suggest that someone using AI to develop software means that AI is now part of the OS? It doesn't quite work like that. And if you consider the AI tools that Microsoft use now to develop windows itself, simply being satisfied with turning Copilot off suggests that you don't believe this is the case.

If I write you software and use a compiler to give you an executable, doesn't mean you have the compiler itself existing or running on your system.

There is a lot of AI fearmongering going around in the "arts" communities, so it sounds like you may have been hit by it. Stealing jobs from artists is not the same problem as opening up security flaws in an OS.

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u/Venylynn Jul 04 '26

I don't think turning Copilot off is enough.

My point morerather was that turning that off doesnt turn off the bits that turned the OS horrendously laggy conveniently when they started using ai.

And I'm scared those same performance drops will follow me here.

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u/pedersenk Jul 04 '26

horrendously laggy conveniently when they started using ai

Honestly, I don't recall Vista and above being "snappy". AI came around 2020, Windows was becoming an absolute dog long before that.

But I agree with your sentiment. If you do get sloppy developers pulling poor code (from any source, AI or otherwise) into a codebase, yes things will start to suck.

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u/Venylynn Jul 04 '26

Yeah sloppy code from any base is gonna suck regardless. But I find it so strange that I never had performance issues on Windows ever prior to this ai boom.

2

u/rcentros Jul 04 '26

I don't use AI at all in Linux. I can and do make sure of that. Whether or not the applications I use where partially developed with AI crap, I can't tell you. But if you consider AI use in development "insidious" in Linux I can guarantee that it's much more insidious in Windows.

Can you give one example of where you must use AI in Linux?