I tested a new Debian Linux loaded with local AI - see if it's right for you

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For many, the idea of AI invading Linux is blasphemy. There are, however, those who believe it is an inevitability and have fully embraced the concept. Even Linux creator Linus Torvalds has told anti-AI developers to "fork off."

Now, one developer has taken Debian and twisted it into a local AI workstation that would make a great tool for your AI needs. Use it for general AI chats, to help you develop apps, or just about anything where AI could assist.

Also: Linus Torvalds puts his foot down, tells anti-AI programmers to 'fork it'

The distribution is Shadowfetch. Before I continue, however, a caveat: This distro is in the very early stages of development, and it appears to have only one developer working on it, which means it might progress very slowly. Even so, it's already pretty impressive (even in these early stages). Therefore, I don't yet recommend Shadowfetch for anything more than satisfying your curiosity.

I had tons of trouble getting Shadowfetch up and working (the installation failed every time, so I had to run it from a live instance). And running an AI-based workstation from RAM isn't even close to being ideal. No matter what I did, I could not get Shadowfetch to install. During the installation, around 50% of the way through, it went to the lock screen, and when I logged in (username/password = shadow), it was back to square one (as if I hadn't run the installation). Oddly enough, when I went to re-run the installation, the drive's partitioning had succeeded.

Anyway, during my time running the OS in RAM, it gave me a good indication of where the developer intends to take Shadowfetch. This is going to be a sort of "make it what you want" distribution. Before installing the OS, you can choose a setup profile that includes options like Creative studio, Developer workstation, Gaming, Office and communication, Local AI lab, and Maker and hardware. You can select one or more of these options to create the exact workstation you want.

You can add as many profiles as you like to the installation.

During that profile creation, you'll also get to set up AI exactly how you want it. You can opt for private local AI, choose your model, and select between two agents -- Hermes and OpenClaw. The AI setup alone makes this distribution worth a go (when it's finally capable of being installed on a hard drive).

Once you have everything set up, you'll find a handy AI tool -- Shadowfetch Assistant -- that enables you to interact with the agent/model(s) you've chosen. Shadowfetch works with Ollama under the hood, so it works wonderfully. (I use Ollama when I need AI.)