GNOME's Newelle: A Customizable AI Assistant for Linux Users

GNOME's new AI assistant can even run Linux commands for you - here's how

However, Newelle does require Flatseal to run commands on Linux. There's a new AI assistant available for the GNOME desktop, and it just reached version 1.0 status. That new AI assistant is called Newelle, and it's already proven to be a worthy contender for your desktop. Newelle isn't just another large language model manager, but a full-blown assistant that can run Linux commands from human-readable descriptions (more on that in a bit), serve as a traditional AI chatbot, and more. Newelle uses Bai Chat as its backend and allows you to download and select from different LLMs (some of which will require an API key). Also: The top 5 GNOME extensions I install first (and what they can do for you) Newelle features chat history, chat editing, profiles, a mini app, extensions, keyboard shortcuts, chat save, recording, and more. This app can easily serve as a missing link to add something similar to what Gemini is to Android (although it does take a bit more work to get it there). I've been using Newelle for a few days now and have found it to be quite a handy app. In fact, it's replaced Ollama/Msty as my go-to GUI for local LLMs. Not only is Newelle as easy to use as Ollama/Msty, it better fits the GNOME aesthetic, is faster, and doesn't take nearly the system resources. The only caveat I've found with Newelle is that getting certain commands to run properly can be a challenge. There are specific steps you must take to allow commands to run, but once you've taken care of those configurations, you can use Newelle to run commands on your Linux system. Let's install Newelle and then configure it to run commands. What you'll need: Newelle is installed on Linux via Flatpak, so you'll need a distribution with that universal package manager installed and working. flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/io.github.qwersyk.Newelle.flatpakref Before you configure Newelle to run commands, you'll need to select which large language model (LLM) to use. Some LLMs are easy to add, while others require an API key to function properly. Let's make this easy and set up a local LLM. Here's how. Open the Newelle app from your desktop menu. From the Newelle main window, click the three horizontal line menu button near the top left and select Settings. From the LLM listing, click the downward-pointing arrow to download an LLM and then, once it's downloaded, select it by clicking the associated radio button. You can download as many LLMs as you want, but obviously, you can only use one at a time. Once you've taken care of this, you can close the Settings window. Also: I tried Sanctum's local AI app, and it's exactly what I needed to keep my data private This is where it gets a bit tricky. You have to change a few specific bits to enable Newelle to run commands for you. Go back to the Settings window and click on the General tab. Under Neural Network Control, disable "Command virtualization." Because Newelle is installed within a sandboxed environment, you have to give it permission to access your file system. To do that, you must install Flatseal with the command: flatpak install flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal Open Flatseal and click on Newelle in the left sidebar. Scroll down until you see the Filesystem section. In that section, enable "All user files." Scroll down to the System Bus section and click the + button associated with Talks. In the new field, add: Once you've taken care of the above, you can then run commands within Newelle. For instance, in the chat field, type: create a folder in my home directory named ZDNET Newelle will create the folder, and it's ready to use. Also: How I made Perplexity AI the default search engine in my browser (and why you should too) And that's the gist of Newelle. Using it as a traditional AI chatbot is straightforward and simple enough that anyone can use it. Sure, getting it to run commands takes a few extra steps, but if you're using Linux, you should be OK with that process. Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

Linux's GNOME-based AI assistant has been fully released, and it can enter Terminal commands for you

* GNOME's Newelle AI assistant is now available for release 1.0, with advanced customization options. * The Flexible Model Support allows users to choose specific AI models for their needs. * User consent is important for Linux's AI assistant, Newelle, in contrast to Microsoft's forced integration. It seems that AI has really shaken the tech world down to its core. With Microsoft and Apple adopting AI big-time, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Linux users would have passed on this tech trend. However, a recent project has proved us wrong, as the GNOME-based AI assistant, Newelle, has just been released in its 1.0 state. GNOME's Newelle AI assistant is ready to rumble As spotted by ZDNet, GNOME's AI assistant, Newelle, is now ready for its 1.0 release. As you might imagine from a Linux project, you have a lot of control over Newelle, including not installing it at all if an AI assistant isn't something you want on your PC. If you do, you can pick and choose which LLM Newelle uses instead of making-do with a pre-set one. It comes with a ton of features: 🎨 Advanced Customization: Tailor the application with a wide range of settings 🚀 Flexible Model Support: Choose from mutliple AI models and providers to fit your specific needs 💻 Terminal Command Exection: Execute commands suggested by the AI on the fly 🧩 Extensions: Add your own functionalities and models to Newelle 🗣 Voice support: Chat hands free with Newelle, supporting many Speech To Text and TTS models, with translation options 🧠 Long Term Memory: Remember conversations from previous chats 💼 Chat with documents: Chat with your own documents 🔎 Web Search: Provide reliable answers using Web Search 🌐 Website Reading: Scrap informations from websites by appending the prefix #https://.. in the prompt 👤 Profile Manager: Create settings profiles and switch between them 📁 Builtin File Manager: Manage you files with the help of AI 📝 Rich Formatting: Supports both Markdown and LaTeX ✏️ Chat editing: Edit or remove any message and manage your prompts easily The Terminal command execution has me equally excited and terrified. Excited because, as a Linux newbie, I sometimes forget the most basic of commands and would love an AI to handle everything for me and remind me of what I can do. However, I am also scared to give an AI Terminal access in case it enters some bad information. Here's hoping it knows what it's doing. If you want to gfive it a spin, pop over to GitHub or Flathub. At first, I was a little surprised to hear that Linux was getting an AI assistant. After all, with Microsoft rolling out Copilot into every program imaginable, it seemed weird that the Linux community would do something similar. However, I think the major difference between Microsoft's and Linux's integration of AI is user consent. While Microsoft will add Copilot badges to everything you love and force you to like it, Linux's AI is entirely opt-in and requires you to set it up manually. In the meantime, if you like the idea of a DIY AI, check out these ways you can use Home Assistant with a local LLM.