Nuove alternative open-source a ChatGPT, ecco Hugging Chat

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Poco tempo fa, complice la temporanea sospensione di ChatGPT da parte dell’authority italiana della privacy, abbiamo incominciato ad analizzare potenziali alternative. preferibilmente in salsa open-source. Parlando di Dolly, ci siamo confrontati con un LLM che può essere gestito localmente (il modello pesa qualcosa più di una ventina di gigabyte) le cui performance, tanto dal punto di vista dei risultati forniti, quanto dal punto di vista della velocità, non erano minimamente paragonabili al prodotto di OpenAI.

Ma Dolly non è l’unico progetto LLM open-source disponibile al momento, all’interno della community il cui nome è tutto un programma, Hugging Face (“Faccina abbracciosa” o “abbracciante” o “che abbraccia”, a seconda di come la volete interpretare), su cui peraltro lo stesso progetto Dolly era basato, è stata resa disponibile un’interfaccia pressoché identica a quella di ChatGPT, pronta da testare: Hugging Chat.

Tornando quindi al progetto GitHub di Hugging Face dove sono disponibili molteplici repository, ciascuno dei quali fornisce la base tecnologica su cui i vari tool open-source visti sinora sono basati, per curiosità, siamo andati a fare un confronto utilizzando la stessa richiesta che nello scorso articolo avevamo fatto a Dolly, così da poter esprimere un giudizio.

La richiesta è sempre “Explain to me the difference between Red Hat and SUSE.” ed ecco, nell’ordine, le risposte (con una indicazione sui tempi).

ChatGPT

La risposta è sostanzialmente istantanea e, per così dire, particolarmente completa:

Red Hat and SUSE are both major players in the enterprise Linux market, but there are some differences between the two.

    Company and history:

Red Hat is an American software company that was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is one of the largest open-source software companies in the world and is known for its Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system, which is based on the open-source Fedora distribution.

SUSE, on the other hand, is a German software company that was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany. It is also a major player in the enterprise Linux market and is known for its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) operating system.

    Distributions and platforms:

Both Red Hat and SUSE offer enterprise-grade Linux distributions that are designed for use in large-scale data centers and mission-critical applications.

Red Hat's flagship distribution is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), which is available in a variety of editions, including a server edition, a desktop edition, and a real-time edition. Red Hat also offers OpenShift, a container application platform, and a variety of other software products and services.

SUSE's flagship distribution is SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), which is also available in a variety of editions, including a server edition, a desktop edition, and a high-performance computing (HPC) edition. SUSE also offers the SUSE Container as a Service (CaaS) Platform, an application delivery platform based on Kubernetes, and a variety of other software products and services.

    Package management:

Red Hat and SUSE use different package management systems. Red Hat uses the RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) system, which is also used by Fedora and CentOS, while SUSE uses the Zypper package manager.

Both package managers are designed to make it easy to install, update, and remove software packages from a Linux system, but there are some differences in the way they work and the commands used to manage packages.

    Support:

Both Red Hat and SUSE offer enterprise-grade support for their Linux distributions, including long-term support (LTS) and security updates, as well as technical support and consulting services.

However, there are some differences in the way support is offered. Red Hat offers a subscription-based support model, where customers pay for access to updates and support, while SUSE offers a variety of support options, including subscription-based support and a pay-as-you-go model.

In summary, both Red Hat and SUSE are major players in the enterprise Linux market, with similar offerings in terms of Linux distributions and support services. However, there are some differences in the way they operate, their histories, and the technologies they use. Ultimately, the choice between the two will depend on the specific needs and requirements of the organization or individual.

HugginChat:

Anche in questo caso come tempi siamo assolutamente rapidi, ed anche in termini di completezza siamo su livelli più che accettabili:



Sure! Both Red Hat and SUSE are Linux distributions (also known as distros) – that is, they’re customized versions of Linux that include different software programs and tools.
While there are many other Linux distros out there, these two stand out:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL): Developed by Red Hat Inc., RHEL was initially released in 2003. Primarily designed for commercial enterprises, it offers paid support services such as updates, security patches, consulting, training, etc. Many organizations prefer this stable and reliable operating system due to its long lifecycle (upgrades and maintenance available over years). It includes popular applications including OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Apache web server, Git version control, and many others that make it usable right after installation without any extra effort. While some of their packages are proprietary or nonfree, users still appreciate RHEL because most components are under open source licenses. You can download RHEL from the official website or use the community-supported CentOS clone which is very similar but has no formal support. Due to differences, it might require additional configuration tweaks after installing from ISO images or minis. For example, during first boot, disable selinux enforcing mode, install EPEL repository, or change time zone settings manually. There is another variation named Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host tailored specifically for container deployments.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES): Formerly developed by Novell until their acquisition by Micro Focus International, now it’s maintained by openSUSE project team members affiliated with German corporation called Open-Xchange. Originally introduced in 1994 as SuSE Linux Professional and later renamed to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (for personal computer clients) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (designed for servers), both versions receive frequent updates and improvements via repositories accessible through YaST Online Update module. Free trials can be downloaded directly from Suse’s main site for testing purposes prior to purchasing subscriptions offering access to patches and support. Compatibility with third-party hardware, comprehensive management tools, strong stability features like Kernel SamePage merging, plus tight integration with Microsoft Windows products via Active Directory, Group Policy Objects synchronization (with native implementation), and more distinguish SLE from competitors. Even though developers consider implementing ZFS file system in future releases, btrfs remains the primary filesystem choice along with Ext4 variants and XFS. Systemd has become the default init process manager since version 12, allowing faster boot times, better startup dependencies handling, improved parallelism across several core subprocesses, cgroups enhancements, etc. For beginners who find package managers intimidating at first glance, AppStream provides graphical interfaces resembling those familiar on Windows OS. Overall, administrators looking for enterprise solutions valuing reliability, efficiency, interoperability with diverse environments, robustness while simplifying complex processes should definitely consider trying SUSE Linux Enterprise Server in production environments. Its community edition, openSUSE Leap, serves enthusiasts desiring cutting-edge technologies and bleeding edge components not yet mature enough for inclusion into stable enterprise builds.

Dolly

Per Dolly, come ampiamente descritto nell’articolo relativo, il problema, oltre ai tempi di risposta, risiedeva nella “povertà” del modello che portava la risposta alla richiesta ad essere altrettanto povera:

Red Hat and SUSE are both Linux distributors. The main difference is that Red Hat focuses on customer service and support. SUSE stands for Surface Under Study and follows the "student model" which is a model where the operating system is freely available for academic use. This allows university campuses, schools and other educational institutions to buy SUSE machines in large quantities at low cost.

Quindi se c’è una cosa chiara, ma non ci voleva un genio per capirla, è che a fare la differenza, al netto dell’interfaccia, è il modello di partenza. Per Dolly è dolly-v2-12b (modello che i creatori dicono sia costato 30 dollari), mentre per Hugging Chat è oasst-sft-6-llama-30b-xor, giudicato da molti il miglior modello chat open-source al momento sul mercato, che però presenta un inconveniente: a differenza di Dolly non può essere usato “as is”, ma necessità di una configurazione leggermente più articolata descritta nella pagina del modello.

La notizia migliore è che comunque le alternative open-source per i modelli di intelligenza artificiale stanno aumentando a vista d’occhio e sarà un piacere scoprirli insieme!

Da sempre appassionato del mondo open-source e di Linux nel 2009 ho fondato il portale Mia Mamma Usa Linux! per condividere articoli, notizie ed in generale tutto quello che riguarda il mondo del pinguino, con particolare attenzione alle tematiche di interoperabilità, HA e cloud.
E, sì, mia mamma usa Linux dal 2009.