I have a NPU for no fucking reason
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
237 points (97.2% liked)
Technology
81722 readers
3367 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Make Linux PCs and you will PRINT MINT. I WILL BUY ALL OF THEM!!!
🐧
Wow the Microsoft article really is a mess. I honed in on a promise made about "AI PCs" and was initially interested in a promise to do local translation (perhaps of un-subtitled foreign films or news?)
AI PCs are powered by a turbocharged neural processing unit (NPU) [that] performs more than 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS)... This matters because:
- AI tasks, like real-time translation, image generation, and intelligent search, run locally instead of requiring the cloud
- Responses feel faster and smoother
- Your battery lasts longer
(Responses are "faster and smoother" and the battery lasts "longer"... compared to what? Surely those magical cloud AI solutions can go faster and offload AI processing, something Microsoft seems to be jockeying for anyway.)
Never mind that technicality. I want local translation. And my PC can do an AI, I thought, until I realized the definition of "AI PCs" is mixed with a more exclusionary selection of CoPilot+ PCs:
Some of the tools listed, including Recall and Live Captions with Translations, are only available on Copilot+ PCs with an NPU capable of 40 TOPS performance (or better).
I'm sort of way out on a niche branch on Linux with Garuda as base with my own rudimentary Hyprland deployment… I have never loved working on my workstation more
Hyprland is my new favorite. Never even thought I would like a tiling Windows manager before, but it is pretty sick. Quickshell is pretty cool too...
load more comments
(2 replies)
The problem is not the concept of ai pc but of microsoft ones that are network connected. I think linux distribution based around a local llm that is limited to assiting with the os and then have opt in for other capabilities could be really interesting.
Recently switched to Linux Mint on my daily driver. Trying Zorin OS on an old laptop. Both run smoother than windows OS ever did. My father wants to buy a new laptop, trying to convince him to use Linux (debian based preferably since that's what I've been most familiar with for years now).
Microsoft is basically an equivalent of Nazi in private market.