Count me out especially if it actually is a:

• Subscription based
• Always online
• High latency
• Single point of failure
• Hallucinating
• Voice controlled
• Vibe coded

Monstrosity!

I’m sort of way out on a niche branch on Linux with Garuda as base with my own rudimentary Hyprland deployment… I have never loved working on my workstation more

Yeah… It is the Windows that finally pushed me the fastest to install Linux. I was very comfortable with Debian servers as part of my work, but never managed to switch my daily driver. Two weeks ago that happened. Peace…

The problem is not the concept of ai pc but of microsoft ones that are network connected. I think linux distribution based around a local llm that is limited to assiting with the os and then have opt in for other capabilities could be really interesting.

2026 is the moment FOR LINUX

Wow the Microsoft article really is a mess. I honed in on a promise made about “AI PCs” and was initially interested in a promise to do local translation (perhaps of un-subtitled foreign films or news?)

AI PCs are powered by a turbocharged neural processing unit (NPU) [that] performs more than 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS)… This matters because:

• AI tasks, like real-time translation, image generation, and intelligent search, run locally instead of requiring the cloud
• Responses feel faster and smoother
• Your battery lasts longer

(Responses are “faster and smoother” and the battery lasts “longer”… compared to what? Surely those magical cloud AI solutions can go faster and offload AI processing, something Microsoft seems to be jockeying for anyway.)

Never mind that technicality. I want local translation. And my PC can do an AI, I thought, until I realized the definition of “AI PCs” is mixed with a more exclusionary selection of CoPilot+ PCs:

Some of the tools listed, including Recall and Live Captions with Translations, are only available on Copilot+ PCs with an NPU capable of 40 TOPS performance (or better).

Are you guys still using microsoft ?

I think still too many people missed the turning point when Microsoft suddenly stopped releasing products/software that were superior in basically all areas to their previous versions. I think that turning point was Windows 8 already, for many who consider Windows 8 a single-time mistake like ME or Vista it was Windows 10, for others it took until Windows 11 until they noticed the decline of Windows as a whole.

And it’s not just MS, but a lot of consumer tech is growing anti-consumer and gets enshittified to the point of where you really have to think hard whether or not you even want the new stuff they’re spewing out. My consumer habits have certainly changed to be much more rigorous than, say, 10-20 years ago. I read a lot more reviews these days and from many more different sources bevore I even think of buying something new.

“AI PCs” will increase your dependency on MS’ online services (which is probably the main thing that MS wants), decrease your privacy even more (also what MS wants - that’s a lot of data for sale), consume even more energy (on a planet with limited resources), sometimes increase your productivity (which is probably the most advantage you’re ever getting out of it) and other times royally screw you over (due to faulty and insecure AI behavior). Furthermore, LLMs are non-deterministic, meaning that the output (or what they’re doing) changes slightly every time you repeat even the same request. It’s just not a great idea to use that for anything where you need to TRUST its output.

I don’t think it will be a particularly good deal. And nothing MS or these other companies that are in the AI business say can ever be taken at face value or as truthful information. They’ve bullshitted their customers way too much already, way more than is usual for advertisements. If this was still the '90s or before 2010 or so - maybe they’d have a point. But this is 2026. Unless proven otherwise, we should assume bullshit by default.

I think we’re currently in a post-factual hype-only era where they are trying to sell you things that won’t ever exist in the way they describe them, but they’ll claim it will always happen “in the near future”. CEO brains probably extrapolate “Generative AI somewhat works now for some use cases so it will surely work well for all use cases within a couple of years”, so they might believe the stories they tell all day themselves, but it might just as well never happen. And even if it DID happen, you’d still suffer many drawbacks like insane vendor dependencies/lock-ins, zero privacy whatsoever, sometimes faulty and randomly changing AI behavior, and probably impossible-to-fix security holes (prompt injection and so on - LLMs have no clear boundary between data and instructions and it’s not that hard to get them to reveal secret data or do things they shouldn’t be doing in the first place. If your AI agent interprets a malicious instruction as valid, and it can act on your behalf on your system, you have a major problem).

Make Linux PCs and you will PRINT MINT. I WILL BUY ALL OF THEM!!!

🐧

Recently switched to Linux Mint on my daily driver. Trying Zorin OS on an old laptop. Both run smoother than windows OS ever did. My father wants to buy a new laptop, trying to convince him to use Linux (debian based preferably since that’s what I’ve been most familiar with for years now).

I thought 2025 was supposed to be “the moment” for AI PCs. Dell and other manufacturers were sure as hell spamming the shit out of that premise in their incessant online ads. But then it all fell through because of the sagging economy on Main Street, and the fact that many people didn’t like AI being forced down they’re proverbial throats. So yeah, 2026 won’t be any better for this ill-thought out marketing strategy.

I have a NPU for no fucking reason