You could run some decent models on your PC l, but nothing that would totally replace serious work. Qwen 3.7 35b is pretty okay. Maybe you could try the new bonsai quant for 3.8 27b but I doubt it would be awesome.
maybe in 1-2 years my hardware will be enough for fast local-AI. maybe by then i can afford new hardware. (think with current trends option #2 gets less realistic each quarter).
not sure if i lost a bit of curiosity and spark. there's so many models, tools, harnesses, tweaks for harnesses, edited models and so many things. ultimately i don't care enough, it seems vapid to stay bleeding-edge informed about LLMs, if one's career does not directly depend on it. i mean, what the fuck even is a bonsai quant, this stuff makes me feel like an uninformed excel boomer even tho i absolutely don't am one :D
not a software engineer per se so i don't need 16 agents running 24/7 with openclaw. i want a local buddy who helps me write ansible/python faster, better, helps me analyze bugs, refactors small things. basically what Claude Web does, with the benefit of it reading the files itself and running locally.
maybe i just ignore the whole AI/LLM part and just buy some new hardware so i can use higher graphics settings while gaming, WAIT NO, that market was nuked by AI as well, guess i'll continue using my i5 from 2019.
Local models and harnesses are the new ~2010s js front end frameworks.
Either accept there's always going to be a new thing of the week and don't over-invest in expecting reliability, or work in another space.
I know it's anathema to "normal" reliable software dev, but that's what new industries look like...