Our Machine Learning in Linux series focuses on apps that make it easy to experiment with machine learning. All the apps covered in the series can be self-hosted.
Large Languages Models (LLMs) trained on massive amount of text can perform new tasks from textual instructions. They can generate creative text, solve maths problems, answer reading comprehension questions, and much more.
Jan is a ChatGPT-alternative that runs 100% offline on your desktop. The aim of the project is to make it easy for anyone to run LLMs and use AI yet retain full control and privacy.
Installation
We evaluated Jan using the Ubuntu 24.10 distro.
The project provides deb packages (stable, beta, and nightly build). We tested the stable version.
We downloaded the file linux-amd64-deb. Let’s rename it:
$ mv linux-amd64-deb jan-linux-amd64.deb
and install the package with dpkg:
$ sudo dpkg -i jan-linux-amd64.deb
As you can see, installation proceeds with no issues.
If you’re not running Debian/Ubuntu or another distro based on either, there’s a cross-distro AppImage available. AppImage is a universal software format for distributing portable software on Linux without needing superuser permissions to install the application. AppImage doesn’t really install software. It’s a compressed image with all the dependencies and libraries needed to run the desired software.
This is cross-platform software. Besides Linux, it runs under macOS and Windows.
Next page: Page 2 – In Operation and Summary
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction and Installation
Page 2 – In Operation and Summary