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Comment by sleight42 | Hacker News Reader

It's always about increasing monthly active users, locking them in, and then enshittifying to squeeze out profit.

Thanks. I'll stick with self-hosting.

How do you afford to do this if you want something resembling the best that's out there right now? The hardware needed to run beefy open source models is like $15,000 to $50,000+ for a robust local multi-GPU rig, and even its performance might lag behind.

I don't do that. I use my 2020 top end gaming PC with its 3090. I just ordered 128GB RAM for it. I'll use a single-chat/slot runtime like Strata or Freetoken. And then I'll be able to run either a blazing fast 8-bit Qwen 3.8 27b or a 4 or 5 bit Qwen 3.8 Flash Next. That's good enough for me for development.

And then I'll have my current gaming rig with less RAM but better CPU and GPU run a reasonable smart tool agent for handling Home Assistant Voice Assist. Downside there: when I'm gaming, no voice assist. That may piss the wife off. We'll see.

At least, this way, I don't have to worry about god damn usage limits. I can knock myself out.

I'd rather use the best possible model available than permanently relegate my work to an inferior one because it's "open"

It's not only about being open but predictability and unforeseen rug pulling.

Would you rather work with a team that is hit or miss, but has moments of brilliance, or predictably, consistently bad?

Glad someone is saying the quiet part out loud today

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