Over the past ten or more years I have hand-coded most of ArchBang’s source files. That said, most of the installer is based on the old FIFO Arch Linux scripts, modified to my own needs many years ago. Application configurations are mostly hand-coded too, with a few minor exceptions (sorry Joe).
Omunchy, my light Omarchy clone, is 100% AI-written code. Call it slop if you like. I didn’t write a line of it, but I directed and tested all of it. While building it I had to be more careful about credit and licensing than at any other time running ArchBang.
I’m well aware of the positives and negatives of using AI. But I’m also the only person working on development, all in my spare time when I should be doing something far more useful.
Omarchy development is moving in leaps and bounds. It has put Linux on the map.
I have spent hours on configuration files just to make small changes (don’t get me started on XML in Openbox). Make a change, test it, see whether it works or looks worse, edit again, repeat. I used to have the application’s docs open next to a terminal while I worked. Now I tell the AI what I want and it’s done, 96% of the time.
That was my first real-world use. Then I asked it to look over an 1,800-line bash script. In minutes it listed the issues, better ways of doing things and general fixes.
Problems start if you trust everything and know nothing. I know what works and what doesn’t, and most of the time how to get there. Knowing something about what you’re working on makes AI easier to use, and its output is better.
The impact of AI is all over the news. There even now talk of pcs starting to fade away to be replaced by cloud based single chip computers [sounds like a chromebook]. Single as in CPU,GPU and RAM in one chip, maybe even storage who knows.
Think I can sum it up from the 80’s. Me and my brother spent hours typing in lines of BASIC code into such vintage computers as ZX81, ZXSpectrum and I did own a BBC Model B. Code that we had no idea what it was, did or even if it worked. Sure we did learn but now….. I can speak what I want done and AI goes off and creates it.
Have uploaded new iso images too..
Stay safe 😉