Canonical developer lays out some AI plans for Ubuntu Linux

Automatic hate reactions for absolutely every decision that Canonical makes is completely normal. It's bizarre.

But for the first time, I'm with the haters.

It's just so strange to look at the absolute shitstorm that MS weathered recently by adding Copilot to everything in Windows and think "yep, we should do that, people obviously want more AI in their operating systems."

Are they blind? It's baffling.

It will probably irritate some of you, but I used AI to help me build my Nextcloud, Pi-hole and Wireguard instances. It also helped me configure my router consequently and install GraphenOS on my Pixel 7a phone. I corrected it's missteps along the way, but If I could do all that stuff with a local personnal AI, not linked to the untrustworthy Big Techs, I'd be willing to give it a go.

Ugggghhhhhh, there's no escaping the AI crap. Leave me alooooooone!

I don't mind it, but I also don't use Ubuntu. Honestly, the thing that put me off most in all of this was the mention of Snaps, since I've followed the seemingly popular opinion that they're Flatpaks with a vendor-locked store, etc. I am more averse to Snaps than open source, open weight, carefully-used AI.

The best way to get most people to use less AI is to make them understand it. There are strong reasons that the bigtech AI firms target low AI literacy and try to get everyone hooked.

If it uses ChatGPT/OpenAI in any way, then I'm switching to Fedora

Sigh... Now - let me pour a bit more gasoline into this small fire, shall I? 😅

Quoting: JohnologueI don't mind it, but I also don't use Ubuntu. Honestly, the thing that put me off most in all of this was the mention of Snaps, since I've followed the seemingly popular opinion that they're Flatpaks with a vendor-locked store, etc. I am more averse to Snaps than open source, open weight, carefully-used AI.

Snaps did not come out of nowhere, you know...
Canonical needed some kind of containerization tech in order to manage apps on their then brand new & shiny Ubuntu Touch phones. It was called Clickable. And it was designed and ready to use already before 2013 - when Ubuntu Touch phones were released. "Non-mobile" version arrived later on to Ubuntu Core in a form of snaps in 2014...

So for Flatpacks - it seems to me that this is yet another technology, where Canonical was an acting technological trailblazer at the time and spawned a functional, real world tech which somebody else (looking at you, RedHat, yet again...😡) had to copy, because it worked and was cool....

Quoting: MohandevirIt will probably irritate some of you, but I used AI to help me build my Nextcloud, Pi-hole and Wireguard instances. It also helped me configure my router consequently and install GraphenOS on my Pixel 7a phone. I corrected it's missteps along the way, but If I could do all that stuff with a local personnal AI, not linked to the untrustworthy Big Techs, I'd be willing to give it a go.

Nobody will be irritated if you use AI for personal projects. What irritates us is corporations shoving AI down our throats whether we want it or not.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyMore stuff Mint will have to rip out. Soon it might be time for them to look at making the Debian base the default.

IMO it is already preferable to install Debian with Cinnamon desktop and Mint icons. DIY Linux Mint.

Regular users won't be able to turn it off, because "it's too hard to implement", but you can bet that the enterprise versions will have it.

Corporations always had autocratic tendencies but with AI they've ventured into the realm of the sad and pathetic and they couldn't be more proud.

I'm calling it now. As soon as Trump and his regime falls the whole AI boom will crash and burn.

Quoting: scaineAutomatic hate reactions for absolutely every decision that Canonical makes is completely normal. It's bizarre.

But for the first time, I'm with the haters.

It's just so strange to look at the absolute shitstorm that MS weathered recently by adding Copilot to everything in Windows and think "yep, we should do that, people obviously want more AI in their operating systems."

Are they blind? It's baffling.

I do agree with you. At the same time if Canonical take the Mozilla approach, with locally run AI features that are togglable, I think it's perfectly fine. It's really more of an evolution of algorithm driven features from years past than the intrusive AI bots that big tech is pushing today. Modern computers come ready with hardware for inference workloads so might as well use the silicon for something. I don't think it's likely Canonical doing a deal with Antropic to have the Claude built into Ubuntu for example, but I suspect many of the commenters here believe just that. Can't say I blame them with the way AI is being pushed into every single product.

Last edited by Brokatt on 28 Apr 2026 at 12:38 pm UTC

Quoting: Cley_FayeUbuntu's track record of allowing fine control over some features does not bode well. We still have to jump through hoops to remove "ubuntu advantage" on systems it is irrelevant (and no, it's not "completely harmless" to leave it there).

If they go in a way that gives full control to the user, with like a checkbox/prompt before enabling something new, who cares. If they go in a way that forces things on because "it's ok, trust us bro" and "who cares, it's just a little harmless extra nail in the coffin", then no. And, well, with Canonical really liking to force things over… we'll see I guess.

I know there are alternatives out there, but the less people will care about this, the more it will become prevalent. And when every major distro decides that it's ok to do that, we're screwed.

usually I would think that on any linux system managing packages and services is so straightforward that it's hard to truly enforce anything. But then what if you have something like a snap daemon running that basically does whatever it wants on its own like windows does, and disabling it may also have consequences you don't want? hard to say but it's a bit suspicious (also I'm not really sure what people already have to do to "debloat" ubuntu cause I never really used it)

Quoting: rustynail

Quoting: Cley_FayeUbuntu's track record of allowing fine control over some features does not bode well. We still have to jump through hoops to remove "ubuntu advantage" on systems it is irrelevant (and no, it's not "completely harmless" to leave it there).

If they go in a way that gives full control to the user, with like a checkbox/prompt before enabling something new, who cares. If they go in a way that forces things on because "it's ok, trust us bro" and "who cares, it's just a little harmless extra nail in the coffin", then no. And, well, with Canonical really liking to force things over… we'll see I guess.

I know there are alternatives out there, but the less people will care about this, the more it will become prevalent. And when every major distro decides that it's ok to do that, we're screwed.

usually I would think that on any linux system managing packages and services is so straightforward that it's hard to truly enforce anything. But then what if you have something like a snap daemon running that basically does whatever it wants on its own like windows does, and disabling it may also have consequences you don't want? hard to say but it's a bit suspicious (also I'm not really sure what people already have to do to "debloat" ubuntu cause I never really used it)

Debloating ubuntu these days is relatively trivial, and the "bloat" part is largely exaggerated. The "bloat" here is an extra package/software manager, and a nagging screen that pops up in terminal, both of which can be removed with relative ease. It's laughably little compared to a windows debloating process: snapd and his ilk can be removed with a few commands, and the ubuntu advantage can be removed by installing a fake empty package instead.

Still, the intent is there; ubuntu advantage in particular is a direct dependency of most metapackage that ensure you get a usable system, and not using these metapackages is a pain in the butt. Since we're talking open source, there's no way to make things absolutely inevitable, but Canonical sure could get very aggressive with extra layers of bullshit, which they did not do so far.

It's not ideal, but even now, I think the situation is relatively fair to everyone. KDE Neon, for example, explicitly built over Ubuntu LTE, have such an empty package to disable this part.

Great. Help me rename, tag, and sort all of my photos and other images.

Same with text files and other documents. Fix my Markdown mistakes. Convert MD to basic HTML to post on forums. Provide a TOC from headers on longer articles I've written.

Help me manage my workspaces and windows. Prompt me with sensible window rules automatically and nudge me to be organized. Take a look into which Librewolf profile I'm using and ensure it stays in the proper Activity.

There are simple, useful usecases for more advanced, personalized computer help tools.

Quoting: Cley_Faye

Quoting: rustynail

Quoting: Cley_FayeUbuntu's track record of allowing fine control over some features does not bode well. We still have to jump through hoops to remove "ubuntu advantage" on systems it is irrelevant (and no, it's not "completely harmless" to leave it there).

If they go in a way that gives full control to the user, with like a checkbox/prompt before enabling something new, who cares. If they go in a way that forces things on because "it's ok, trust us bro" and "who cares, it's just a little harmless extra nail in the coffin", then no. And, well, with Canonical really liking to force things over… we'll see I guess.

I know there are alternatives out there, but the less people will care about this, the more it will become prevalent. And when every major distro decides that it's ok to do that, we're screwed.

usually I would think that on any linux system managing packages and services is so straightforward that it's hard to truly enforce anything. But then what if you have something like a snap daemon running that basically does whatever it wants on its own like windows does, and disabling it may also have consequences you don't want? hard to say but it's a bit suspicious (also I'm not really sure what people already have to do to "debloat" ubuntu cause I never really used it)

Debloating ubuntu these days is relatively trivial, and the "bloat" part is largely exaggerated. The "bloat" here is an extra package/software manager, and a nagging screen that pops up in terminal, both of which can be removed with relative ease. It's laughably little compared to a windows debloating process: snapd and his ilk can be removed with a few commands, and the ubuntu advantage can be removed by installing a fake empty package instead.

Still, the intent is there; ubuntu advantage in particular is a direct dependency of most metapackage that ensure you get a usable system, and not using these metapackages is a pain in the butt. Since we're talking open source, there's no way to make things absolutely inevitable, but Canonical sure could get very aggressive with extra layers of bullshit, which they did not do so far.

It's not ideal, but even now, I think the situation is relatively fair to everyone. KDE Neon, for example, explicitly built over Ubuntu LTE, have such an empty package to disable this part.

Substituting a package with an empty one already feels like a filthy hack tbh that would take me a while to figure out on my own, like you probably have to build it and all. I guess it works this way because it was more convenient (or like a more "proper" implementation in line with how the rest of this stuff works) for canonical rather than more malicious but it doesn't make it any less annoying