How to get started with AI using Ubuntu 24 LTS

[corvid2026]

Ubuntu Support Template

Ubuntu Version

24.04

Desktop Environment

Not sure I think Gnome. I’m new to Linux and Ubuntu

Problem Description:
I want to learn how to use AI with Ubuntu. I’m.using Ubuntu on an old Hp G6 laptop.

What should I download in order to use AI for

1 Chat

2 Video

3 Databases and Libre Calc

Relevant System Information:
I’m using Ubuntu 24 on an old HP G6 laptop. It has 4gb of ram

Screenshots or Error Messages:
N/A

What I’ve Tried:
N/A

Thank you

[celticwarrior]

@corvid2026

I’m using Ubuntu 24 on an old HP G6 laptop. It has 4gb of ram

Very far from ideal for your projects.

[rubi1200]

@corvid2026 Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse

As an experiment I tried running Canonical’s inference snap in a VM with 4GB of RAM assigned.

Installation went fine.

Attempting to run it was a complete failure.

Conclusion: 4GB of RAM is almost certainly not enough to run an LLM locally.

If you would like to read more, see below:

Introducing silicon-optimized inference snaps | Canonical

Call for testing gemma3 inference snap

Hi all, At the Ubuntu Summit, we announced inference snaps, a framework for packaging and deploying silicon-optimized LLMs on Linux. At the time, we released two snaps for beta testing: one for Qwen 2.5 VL, and another for the DeepSeek R1 model. We received constructive feedback from our silicon partners and the community, and incorporated many of those into our tooling. The improvements are expected to continue over the upcoming months, making inference snaps more user friendly and performant…

Install gemma3 on Linux | Snap Store

Hope this helps.

[corvid2026]

Thank you for the replies I hadn’t expected replies so soon.

I want to move away from windows to Linux. Given that 4gb ram is not suitable what new laptop would you recommend me to buy that has Linux Ubuntu already installed? I was using Windows 10 and don’t like being coerced into having to buy a new windows 11 laptop.

The only thing that kept me with windows up to now was Microsoft Office and SQL Server.

[paddylandau]

@corvid2026

what new laptop would you recommend me to buy that has Linux Ubuntu already installed?

The only OEM that I know that sells Ubuntu preinstalled is Dell. Not all of their machines, and they don’t advertise all of their Ubuntu machines on the website, so you should phone them to ask before you decide to buy.

Other OEMs provide different distributions of Linux preinstalled, such as Lenovo and System 76. They should run Ubuntu fine, but I can’t promise that.

[Norm24]

@paddylandau

The only OEM that I know that sells Ubuntu preinstalled is Dell.

System76 has the option of Pop! or Ubuntu 24.04.

[corvid2026]

Thanks all, I’ll contact Dell.

Once I have a suitable machine would Ollama be the best option to learn how to use AI.

Can you recommend a blog or article on how to get the best out of AI using Linux?

[paddylandau]

@Norm24

System76 has the option of Pop! or Ubuntu 24.04.

That’s interesting! I thought that they created Pop!_OS specifically for their hardware.

[paddylandau]

@corvid2026

Can you recommend a blog or article on how to get the best out of AI using Linux?

Sorry, no, that’s not an area of expertise for me.

[matt-rw]

You could start with installing python-torch (sudo apt install python-torch) and search the web for PyTorch tutorials. I installed on my System76, Ubuntu 24.04 box and ran. It was able to make use of my Nvidia GPU.

[graymech]

If statistics are correct and statistics prove they are …

If AI is useful and trustworthy and AI proves they are …

That, in my opinion, is the situation. For those who do not know Firefox uses AI in searches. Zoom Client comes with AI. Libreoffice does not come with AI but there are extensions being developed. This is what Google AI said about Libreoffice and AI.

No, LibreOffice does not come with AI integrated out-of-the-box

. It is a privacy-focused, 100% offline suite that does not use your data for training AI.

However, because many users want AI features, the community has developed optional extensions to add AI capabilities.

Here is how AI can be added to LibreOffice:

• AI Image Generation (Stable Diffusion): An extension called “Stable Diffusion for LibreOffice” is available, which allows you to generate images from text prompts within Writer and Impress, powered by the AI Horde volunteer-driven, distributed cluster.

• AI Writer Extension (Local/API): There are extensions like “localwriter” that enable local generative AI (run on your own computer) or connect to APIs for text generation.

• AI in Calc: There are AI functions for LibreOffice Calc, such as “AITABLE”, which utilize Large Language Models (LLMs) to process data.

These tools are not installed by default, allowing you to keep your LibreOffice installation lightweight and private, or add AI functionality if you choose.

Really, in my opinion, we should be asking “What do you want to do with AI on Ubuntu?” There are subjects that we do not help people with. Such as How to hack passwords and Operating Systems. Hacking used to mean programming. But there is a different kind of hacking that we do not help people to do.

There are other subjects that we do not help people with. We will not help a student with their school work by giving them the answers to questions that they must workout for themselves.

Are there aspects of using AI that will violate the Code of Conduct?

Regards

[Norm24]

@paddylandau

That’s interesting! I thought that they created Pop!_OS specifically for their hardware.

They did but they still offer the latest Ubuntu LTS if you want it.

[corvid2026]

@graymech

Really, in my opinion, we should be asking “What do you want to do with AI on Ubuntu?” There are subjects that we do not help people with. Such as How to hack passwords and Operating Systems. Hacking used to mean programming. But there is a different kind of hacking that we do not help people to do.

There are other subjects that we do not help people with. We will not help a student with their school work by giving them the answers to questions that they must workout for themselves.

Are there aspects of using AI that will violate the Code of Conduct?

Regards

No I won’t be violating the code of conduct.

I would like to use AI to edit wildlife videos and weight training videos and to help with writing code for SQL Databases etc. I get bogged down when writing code and it slows me down a lot trying to correct it.

I have read that it can help you with DIY and interior design and i would like to see what it’s capabilities are with that.

I would also like to try and learn how to incorporate it into daily tasks and make everything more efficient.

There is a bewildering amount of models and I just wanted to know what would be a good learning curve for using it with Ubuntu.

As it stands now my laptop isn’t suitable anyway so I will have to get a new one but I want to avoid windows which I am sick of.

The big drawback for me with Linux is not being able to use Microsoft office. I do use Libre Calc and it’s very good but I’m so used to Microsoft Office that I’m not as efficient with Libre Calc.

I also use Libre Base. I find it ok for basic Database work but it’s not ideal.

I am concerned about privacy and whether it’s hoovering up everything in the background. I havent installed any AI apps on my phone for that reason and so far I have just used Gemini and ChatGpt to ask questions.

Thanks to all for helping

[graymech]

Thank you for replying to my reply. Thank you for outlining the uses you want to put AI to. It is not for me to decided whether or not someone should be given secret information.

We can both agree that AI is and could be useful and that we should be concerned about where it gets its information from and the use it is being put to.

Some of my replies to topics come from using Google AI. Thinking about this matter, I think the reply we should give on Ubuntu Discourse is to refer to Canonical tutorials. Such as this link.

AI meets SQL server

Regards