Been a long time Debian user but with the recent AI decision I am planning on moving on so anyone have an anti-AI recommendations? I understand its being used in the kernel as well but are there any distros taking a full anti-AI approach to the parts of the code they control?
Since folks seem a little confused on what I am referring to here is the mailing list page regarding the use of gen ai without disclosure vote: https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2026/08/msg00360.html
Phoronix article on it: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Debian-Votes-Responsible-AI-Use
You cannot tell from the code necessarily anyway so anti-AI policies are hard to enforce. In the end the developer (or AI wielding human) is responsible for the code quality and its license which is what matters. All this discussion feels just like the usual culture war dividing the community. I’m more concerned about the intentions of people adding fuel to the fire.
There’s this list of distros that actively reject AI/LLM contributions.
There’s also this list with a few more not listed in the first.
Also found that AntiX rejects AI usage based on a conversation about it in their forum, but they are based on Debian, so…
Appreciate the list! Definitely going to be grabbing as many programs who actively reject AI as I can. Gotta support those who are keeping up the good fight! Thanks again ProdigalFrog!
Asahi Linux
Oh, that’s nice
Poor servo.
Wait until they find out AI is used in the Linux kernel.
Arch, Void, Gentoo, Chimera and Aeryn all have anti-AI policies.
Do you know where I can find the Arch policy?
I must have misremembered it because I also can’t find an official AI policy.
But the devs have banned LLMs in their issue tracker, at the very least:- https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/onnxruntime/-/work_items/18#note_460864
- https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/mkinitcpio-systemd-tool/-/work_items/3#note_503832
- https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/python-huggingface-hub/-/work_items/43#note_504464
For the people who really don’t want AI in their OS, check this.
Cool list apart from all the downstream projects whose upstreams use AI
Ooh, that’s one I hadn’t seen. Thanks for sharing!
I believe Fedora requires disclosure on the use of LLMs in contributions, and that fully generated submissions are not allowed, so slightly better than Debian in this respect (https://docs.fedoraproject.org/council/policy/ai-contribution-policy/)
Linux Mint is always a nice option, but I can’t find an LLM policy for them, but given that they are removing snaps and other Ubuntu bits that nobody likes by default, I would imagine they are more resistant on LLM contributions. They don’t have a policy set in place for this though.
Arch Linux (and derivatives, I currently use EndeavourOS but many like CachyOS too!) are awesome too if you are alright with rolling release. Again, no LLM policy I can find (I didn’t look very hard though, I have better things to do), but I imagine they would be more resistant to it.
Mint is still downstream of Debian though, which will make them taking a stance against it pretty tough.
Given Debian’s slow development and focus on stability above all else I doubt this will make any practical difference to contributions that actually end up in releases. And honestly at this point every OS or piece of software needs to have AI reviewing its codebase for vulnerabilities, even if it’s not making any code contributions.
I think if only submissions that follow a certain guideline are accepted then I doubt this will result in lower quality, it will even likely increase its quality by fixing relevant bugs. So I don’t think quality will degrade so long as parts of it don’t turn into 100% automated code factories.
The only thing that remains are the ethical challanges but hardly anything in this world is completely free of entanglement to ethically questionable practices. You use a lenovo to write code? They are probably funding millions into AI. You have a nvidia gpu in your computer? Yeah, ofcourse it is good to take a principled stand against corpo-fascism. But holier-than-thou approaches will only bite back.
But I don’t understand why people did not vote for accepting AI code but with disclosure. Seems like there is nothing to lose there even if you are an AI supporter. And could be useful for statistical purposes like analysing how human vs robot PR differ in things like rejection rate/severity of bugs found etc
i wouldn’t say they’re “embracing AI” or ‘sloppified’… but anyway.
i think slackware isn’t using llm stuff for development. it’s my daily/fav distro. but it’s quite different from debian.
Gentoo gang rise up!
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
Surprisingly only been mentioned once, but Chimera! It’s weird and strange and brilliant!
If you want something slightly more normal (well, actually, it’s not any more normal, just more common), then you can get PostmarketOS installed on anything if you go outside the documentation a little (it’s really not hard,
pmbootstrapis quite a good utility). If you take that route, I recommend OpenRC as not only is PMOS anti-AI, but so is OpenRC!Of COURSE there are two of them.
So . . . maybe it’s a good thing that Gentoo with GNU Hurd exists? Does Hurd even have an AI policy?
Hurd doesnt even know AI exists.
I’m not sure why you think Debian is embracing AI
They took a nuteral stance on it
I wouldn’t call that neutral. Allowing it with no disclosure sounds like embracing but trying to hide it.
I you are ready to make an exception for the Linux kernel you might as well make an exception for the Debian distribution which is the basis of a lot of stuff.
Gentoo?
I recommend:
No AI there.
This is the only answer.
What about
?
No, that harms the environment somehow, I’m sure of it.
Oh! I know. It’s “fascist technology” because Texas Instruments is owned by rich people.
This is a Casio calculator though.
Texas Instruments make weapon system.
There you go. Stick with the abacus. It’s the only way to be moral in his world. Of course, that’s assuming you don’t have a problem with the trees that died in its creation. To be WHOLLY moral, you should use rocks on the ground, in the outline of an abacus you made in the sand with your finger. And HOPEFULLY you didn’t disturb the micro ecosystem of the sand when you drew it.
It does use plastic. 🤔
By jove, you’re right! 😱 Clearly it’s fascist technology.
Better stick with the abacus.
I am probably gonna ditch linux all together because the creator has been infected by genAI ( used LLM to heko debug, which is a big sin in my codebook ), so I have been trying NetBSD. I got it installed last night, but now I need to figure out how to get xfce4 to be default desktop environment I boot into.
Someone else listed a no-ai OS website, so I am gonna look into some of the other BSDs there as well.
You may as well abandon life altogether, because life has been “infected” with reality.
yes, obviously the solution to things being shit is to just give up and die, what wonderful advice.
Thanks for proving my point, that quitting is the wrong move. Next time I’ll add /s so you can identify the sarcasm.
And reality is shapes by our actions. We work hard enough and we may and genAI forever best case scenario. Worst I’ll take is societal values equating genAI with CP levels of degeneracy and depravity.
You’re deluding yourself, friend, and will only cause yourself more pain in the long run than if you just accepted reality now. Eradicating AI is as likely as eradicating computers themselves. I mean, I’m not going to delete the dozens of models off my devices, and I’m just one person.
Accept that innovation is here, and find a winnable battle to focus on.
The problem is I am optimistically delusional, so I firmly believe it is a winnable battle. I refuse to give up, even if it means becoming the poster person for the movement. By any means necessary, I believe us people ( the non genAI users not included because they ain’t people ) must win the war.
Also, you’re talking to a stubborn autistic 'tard, so it’ll be nearly impossible to change my stance on this due to my autistic passion level of hatred.
Oh, yeah, I get you. I’m the same way about the color purple. l won’t rest until the entire hue is eliminated from the electromagnetic spectrum, and anyone who uses it for anything, for any reason, is shunned as a degenerate.
You’re talking to a fellow obstinate. We can accomplish literally anything, no matter how outlandish or inane. I hate purple so much!!!
