With the current state of things, if a software distribution includes Linux, it includes AI assisted code. Maybe something like NetBSD? I'm not even sure if anything is AI free anymore.
It’s a losing battle.
Projects that seem to take a clear anti-AI stance today can change their stance in the future. Linus went from being kinda AI-cautious to AI-pilled in the span of a year. I’ve seen the same with today AI-pilled coworkers who just one year ago were AI-skeptic.
An operating system also consists of many different parts made by different people, each having their own stance with regards to AI use. It’s impossible to keep a track how all of these projects change their stance over time.
Regrettably, I don't think there's a good middle ground distribution that's anti-AI. It's either very technical distributions like Chimera and Gentoo or opinionated distributions geared towards newcomers like elementary OS or more specialized distributions like Nura (formerly postmarketOS) that are explicitly anti-AI.
I think your best bet would be to go with elementary OS, honestly. It uses its own DE, Pantheon, rather than KDE, but I think it's easily your least worst option. I've never used it extensively myself, however.
Of course, I also am obligated to mention that the Linux kernel is extremely pro-AI. However, an anti-AI Linux distribution is leagues better than using, say, Windows when it comes to AI.
That being said, here's a list of distributions known to be affected by AI as well as those that are anti-AI.
- AerynOS (1)
- Arch Linux has banned LLMs in Issue Trackers (1, 2, 3)
- Asahi Linux (1)
- Chimera Linux (1)
- elementary OS (1)
- Gentoo Linux (1)
- Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre (1)
- Nura (1)
- secureblue (1)
- gnome OS Majority of GNOME developers reject ai, even if there is no ai policy yet
Holy fuck, secureblue sounds amazing.
Anyone try it here?
What's wrong with Void though? I think they clearly stated that it's against their policy.
The policy doesn't seem to be a full ban on AI within the distribution's infrastructure, permitting some usage such as for translation and for research.
For anything else, this would be a mild annoyance to me.
For a Linux distribution, not fully banning AI is a dealbreaker for me due to the direction that the Linux kernel is going. Thus the resistance that a Linux distribution does against AI must be stronger for me to consider it, especially when there are other Unix-like OSes that have less AI-generated code due to not using the Linux kernel.
This line of thinking also helps me narrow down Linux distributions to recommend.
I see. Translation part is fine in my opinion but I too am not so sure about the research part and it can lead to something wrong even though the code is not written by it in the first hand.
Makes sense to me. As I said, I'd find this a mild annoyance (at worst even!) if this weren't a Linux distribution. Could (theoretically anyways) be fine enough for OP though.
Yeah, we're in a pickle and I don't like this at all. The core problem is kernel itself though and no distro has enough menpower to maintain a no-AI kernel on parallel. I don't want to imagine how things will be 20 years later at this rate.
This user did mention they did not have technical skills required to set-up and install Chimera Linux...Suggesting either Gentoo or NetBSD is genuinely an appalling choice in this case. Both of those require a lot from their users to get into a basic TTY window, after installing as there is no automated desktop environment installed. NetBSD is particularly more difficult to access because of boot requirements and the like. It doesn't run on UEFI machines (not easily) it would require techwizardry. If we want to be kind to people in the community, we have to provide better suggestions for what they are asking for.
I tried installing NetBSD yesterday and it defeated me. Wifi seems to have been the issue. Installing BSD is what Windows people think installing Linux is like.
Please do not construe this post as impugning on the skill or morality of BSD developers. BSD gets way less funding and resources than Linux so their devs can't cover everything. I'd like to try again some time, but maybe try practicing with a virtual machine before I do it for real.
Please do not construe this post as impugning on the skill or morality of BSD developers. BSD gets way less funding and resources than Linux so their devs can’t cover everything.
I'll impugn their morality: their lack of funding is a direct result of them insisting on getting cucked with permissive licensing instead of copyleft. They explicitly condone abuse, so of fucking course abusers take advantage without giving back!
If you want respect, protect the users.
I recommend you read this article.
Also look at the history of the Linux kernel and you'll see that GPL does not protect against corporate interests from taking over.
Installing BSD is what Windows people think installing Linux is like.
Ah, so to a Linux person it's like installing Windows. If it goes through fine, there's still an additional two hours of setting shit up before giving up.
Its in the kernel. So if you're running Linux you really aren't getting away from it. Maybe BSD would be a better option for no AI but Linux is shot when it cones to that.
True. It really sucks. I'd like to hope at least that Linus will do better than the armies of tech bros that have outsourced their brains through management, Slopya, and Tim Cook pressuring them through Windows and Apple right now. If i have to choose, Linux at least gives me more control and isn't collecting every last shred of data
I know and it pains me. But, I got used to Linux and I have used it for a while now. Best I got is even if the main kernel is tainted, there are some other aspects that aren't tainted or as tainted.
You can't tell now, theres no disclosure. So theres simply no knowing what was made by AI and what wasn't
And when people say they got used to Windows, they would be chided for giving in and they should “just take the plunge” and switch to Linux. Now that Linux is being assimilated, you want to hold on to it. Why not just take the plunge and go BSD, or fork the kernel
You make a valid point. Maybe I should give it a shot instead of writing it off as too complex for me. I ain't much of a quiter (learning Linux at first was painful even with guides. The amount of times I encountered a bug and spent hours trying to resolve it 😭).
My friends lowkey dis on me being on Linux since some games they like playing aren't available on Linux and somethings being a little harder to do but I have come to terms with it and only care about games that can work natively or on Proton.
Honestly I say to expand your horizons. I use Linux, Windows, Mac and have dabbled in BSD and Irix. I’m a big believer in “best tool for the job”. Sometimes that’s Windows, sometimes it’s Linux.
Once you start learning more of the OSs you actually realize how similar they are at the lower levels and gives you an appreciation of where they went. Hell, pretty much the networking stack as we know it came from BSD.
Best I got is even if the main kernel is tainted, there are some other aspects that aren’t tainted or as tainted.
Won't be long before everything getting merged into the kernel is AI slop
Yeah, unfortunately LLM generated code is being added in the Linux Kernel, it is going to get slopped soon enough. Without labels, it will be hard to track the slop changes vs good sane ones. Honestly, unless people are actively microdosing (chuckles) I mean writing Microkernels and abandoning the mainline Kernel and most of the Sloppy written code...It's going to be difficult to escape the influence of LLMs on even on Linux distros. I really wish the old white dudes weren't losing their damn minds after one vibecoding session with a thing that cannot think. Linus, has officially fallen into his slopper era.
Elementary OS fits the bill, it has a low barrier of entry for you, they won't use AI personally. However, the problem with how AI is that it is also being used to write changes to the Linux Kernel, and those changes aren't being flagged anymore (because Linus lost his goddamn mind). So it will be harder to escape the influence of AI through just a distro change.
At least, Elementary OS can promise that anything they made is going to be hand coded and not sloppy AF. They are a good one to put money towards and support, easy breezy to use and their community is friendly!
Thx for the recommendation! I'll def think about supporting them.
You're welcome! I hope you enjoy Elementary OS, as the team are good eggs. They do their best.
NetBSD is the way
The lead dev for https://elementary.io/ is anti-ai
elementary is usa and is based on ubuntu, neither of those things fill me with confidence re: ai
Redcore (gentoo based), installs via calamares
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=redcore
Some links on the subject:
https://noai.starlightnet.work/list.html
https://codeberg.org/brib/slopfree-software-index
https://www.newinlinux.com/ai-free-linux-distros-open-source-operating-systems/
Thx for the links! I'll check them out!
I didn't know about Redcore, looks like a pretty neat easy onboarding for the Gentoo madness. Thanks for the link.
Guix is being developed on codeberg, which codeberg has a general anti-ai stance, so maybe thats something
It also recently voted a more specific stricter anti-ai policy (90 eligible voters; 39 support, 5 accept, 1 oppose (unanimity is needed to pass (probably should change to a large qualified majority as the project continues to grow (maybe something like 90% or 95%? (I'd suggest it myself but while I plan on contributing I haven't started using Guix yet (I got a fully free computer, currently in shipping (will put Guix System on it when it arrives)) and it feels inappropriate to suggest such a change before I have contributed))))).
You have an appropriate amount of paranthesis in your comment about Guix.
Must say, it looks like it won't be as complex as Gentoo (I tired installing it a whiles back and oh boi it was 40 mins of straight pain and not understanding what I was doing) but still seems a bit more complex then a graphical installer. I'll give it a shot on a VM to see how I fair.
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AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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