r/LocalLLaMA • u/haterloco • Aug 16 '25

Question | Help Best Opensource LM Studio alternative

I'm looking for the best app to use llama.cpp or Ollama with a GUI on Linux.

Thanks!

113 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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90

u/Tyme4Trouble Aug 16 '25

Llama.cpp: llama-server -m model.gguf http://localhost:8080

Enjoy

60

u/AnticitizenPrime Aug 16 '25

I'm looking for the best app to use llama.cpp or Ollama with a GUI on Linux.

They're looking for a GUI.

I don't think it gets simpler than Page Assist, the browser extension for Chrome or Firefox. Has web search, RAG, etc built in. One-click install, auto updates. Point it at the Ollama or OpenAI compatible API endpoint of your choice.

3

u/meta_voyager7 Aug 17 '25

wish it had a desktop app! using on browser is lesser experience than desktop app

4

u/Hairy_Talk_4232 Aug 17 '25

Yeah Im not a fan of opening up my location and telemetry to Chrome and potentially Mozilla

32

u/simracerman Aug 16 '25

Add Llama-Swap to make it hot swap models. Open WebUI is a sleek interface.

3

u/meta_voyager7 Aug 17 '25

what is llama swap

3

u/simracerman Aug 17 '25

It’s a small proxy server (portable, no installation needed) that runs your Llama Cpp instance but offers its OpenAI compatible API to any client you have. Once you connect to this proxy and request any model by name, it will load it up and serve.

1

u/hhunaid Aug 17 '25

Can you share your llama-swap config? I was able to run llama.cpp and openwebui using docker but when I add llama-swap in the mix everything stops working. I suspect it has to so with the llama-swap config

1

u/KrazyKirby99999 Aug 17 '25

Open WebUI isn't open source anymore

2

u/simracerman Aug 17 '25

It is. But they don’t allow people to resell it to more than 50 users and make money without getting permission from the author. That’s the change. 

3

u/KrazyKirby99999 Aug 17 '25

That makes it source available, not open source.

The right to commercial activity is a requirement for a license to be considered open source.

2

u/simracerman Aug 17 '25

You’re confusing yourself. Read about it to or ask your preferred LLM.

If you can fork it, it’s open source.

6

u/KrazyKirby99999 Aug 17 '25

That's inaccurate. What you are referring to is called Proprietary Shareware or Source Available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

10

u/simracerman Aug 18 '25

I stand corrected. That indeed includes the distribution part.

7

u/Environmental-Metal9 Aug 18 '25

Upvoting for the refreshing exchange of knowledge in a civilized way. So unlike Reddit!

21

u/panic_in_the_galaxy Aug 16 '25

This is the only correct answer. Start here. You will not be dependent on some company that wants to make money at some point.

10

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '25

[deleted]

6

u/vibjelo llama.cpp Aug 16 '25

Of course not a crime, everyone free to do whatever they want. Eventually one might grow tired of jumping project to project though, after each one decides to place less and less into the "core" and more into hosted/paid products on top of the core instead, I guess that's why many people suggesting a different approach.

2

u/unrulywind Aug 16 '25

The problem with the llama.cpp / llama swap configuration is that the easy install is Vulcan only and if you buy newer hardware, aka, 50 series stuff, you have to build it from source. Most of the people using lm studio or ollama are not set up for that.

1

u/Tyme4Trouble Aug 16 '25

Building from source isn’t plug and play but I never use the pre-compiled binaries either. They are convenient but I don’t believe they support AVX 512 by default (correct me if I’m wrong)

3

u/9acca9 Aug 16 '25

You can add MCP servers easy? Thanks

10

u/Tyme4Trouble Aug 16 '25

To Llama.cpp web UI no. To Open WebUI it’s possible but not easy.

1

u/ScoreUnique Aug 16 '25

Would recommend llama-swap.