Re: LLM usage in Debian -- ballot options comparison

Lucas Nussbaum <[email protected]> Sat, 8 Aug 2026 06:50:27 +0200
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.vote
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
On 07/08/26 at 17:19 +0200, Didier 'OdyX' Raboud wrote:
> Le mardi, 4 août 2026, 18.15:02 h heure d’été d’Europe centrale Lucas Nussbaum 
> a écrit :
> > > I want a Debian project to which it's _easier_ to participate to, not
> > > harder. And I'm afraid that allowing LLM usage will deepen a divide
> > > between "those who can afford the price of LLMs" and "those who are stuck
> > > with just their aging laptop at hand" (caricature intended).
> > 
> > As I mentioned already in this thread, I've been working on trying to
> > get inference providers sponsor access to Debian developers (aligned
> > with https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2025/06/msg00060.html), and I
> > recently got some success. So it looks like we should be able to provide
> > access to state-of-the-art Open Weight models to Debian contributors.
> 
> Providing easier access to LLMs via paid-for API services to active Debian 
> contributors is not too dissimilar to sponsoring their LWN subscription, or an 
> Office 365 plan, frankly. If the project manages to offer that to its members 
> who have a use for it (and opt-in), I don't have an issue. But it's still an 
> "insider" privilege.
> 
> My point is rather: if a large proportion of the work is conducted by active 
> members with privileged access to efficient paid-for APIs, I worry that we 
> made contributions by non-members much harder. Let's be real here: it's 
> already _really hard_ to become an active contributor: there are lots to 
> learn, lots to read, lots to understand, lots of assumptions and project 
> history, etc.
> 
> On the other hand, I also agree that it doesn't make too much sense to forbid 
> those who can afford it to use the powerful tools that exist (externalities 
> aside, sic).

I agree that it would be a problem if we were completely dependant on
super-expensive API services that only some could afford. However:

1/ If Debian get sponsored access to inference services (which looks
like it's going to happen), we could choose to extend access to DMs (not
just DDs) or even to add a vouching mechanism where a DD/DM could vouch
for other contributors to give them access (similar to how we provide
salsa accounts).

2/ There are inference services that cost as little as $10 per month for
a reasonable volume of usage of Open Weight models (OpenCode Go is an
example).

3/ We could also ally with other Free Software projects to build a
shared inference infrastructure to serve the Open Weight models that we
have today and that are already very interesting.

Lucas
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