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Main deal breaker for me when I tried it was I couldn't talk to multiple models at once, even if they were remote models on OpenRouter. If I ask a question in one chat, then switch to another chat and ask a question, it will block until the first one is done.

Also Tauri apps feel pretty clunky on Linux for me.

diggan · 11h ago

> Also Tauri apps feel pretty clunky on Linux for me.

All of them, or this one specifically? I've developed a bunch of tiny apps for my own usage (on Linux) with Tauri (maybe largest is just 5-6K LoC) and always felt snappy to me, mostly doing all the data processing with Rust then the UI part with ClojureScript+Reagent.

_the_inflator · 11h ago

Yep. I really see them as an architecture blueprint with a reference implementation and not so much as a one size fits all app.

I stumbled upon Jan.ai a couple of months ago when I was considering a similar app approach. I was curious because Jan.ai went way beyond what I considered to be limitations.

I haven’t tried Jan.ai yet, I see it as an implementation not a solution.

signbcc · 8h ago

> especially the organization's principles

I met the team late last year. They’re based out of Singapore and Vietnam. They ghosted me after promising to have two follow-up meetings, and were unresponsive to any emails, like they just dropped dead.

Principles and manifestos are a dime a dozen. It matters if you live by them or just have them as PR pieces. These folks are the latter.

dcreater · 7h ago

With a name like Menlo research, I assumed they were based in Menlo park. They probably intended that

c-hendricks · 12h ago

Yeah, webkit2gtk is a bit of a drag

roscas · 15h ago

Tried to run Jan but it does not start llama server. It also tries to allocate 30gb that is the size of the model but my vram is only 10gb and machine is 32gb, so it does not make sense. Ollama works perfect with 30b models. Another thing that is not good is that it make constant connections to github and other sites.

hoppp · 12h ago

It probably loads the entire model into ram at once while ollama solves this and does not, it has a better loading strategy

blooalien · 6h ago

Yeah, if I remember correctly, Ollama loads models in "layers" and is capable of putting some layers in GPU RAM and the rest in regular system RAM.

SilverRubicon · 13h ago

Did you see the feature list? It does not deny that makes connections to other sites.

- Cloud Integration: Connect to OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Groq, and others

- Privacy First: Everything runs locally when you want it to

biinjo · 13h ago

Im confused. Isn’t the whole premise of Ollama that its locallt ran? What’s the difference or USP when comparing the two.

moron4hire · 13h ago

That's not the actual tagline being used in the repo. The repo calls itself an alternative to ChatGPT. Whoever submitted the link changed it.

hoppp · 12h ago

I think its an alternative because ollama has no UI and its hard to use for non-developers who will never touch the CLI

simonw · 12h ago

Ollama added a chat UI to their desktop apps a week ago: https://ollama.com/blog/new-app

accrual · 7h ago

I have been using the Ollama GUI on Windows since release and appreciated its simplicity. It recently received an update that puts a large "Turbo" button in the message box that links to a sign-in page.

I'm trying Jan now and am really liking it - it feels friendlier than the Ollama GUI.

dcreater · 7h ago

And ollamas founder was on here posting that they are still focused on local inference... I don't see ollama as anything more than a funnel for their subscription now

apitman · 12h ago

Their new app is closed source right?

simonw · 12h ago

Huh, yeah it looks like the GUI component is closed source. Their GitHub version only has the CLI.

diggan · 11h ago

I think at this point it's fair to say that most of the stuff Ollama does, is closed source. AFAIK, only the CLI is open source, everything else isn't.

conradev · 10h ago

Yeah, and they’re also on a forked llama.cpp

kanestreet · 1h ago

Yup. They have not even acknowledged the fact that it’s closed, despite a ton of questions. Ppl are downloading it assuming it’s open source only to get a nasty surprise. No mention of it in their blog post announcing the GUI. Plus no new license for it. And no privacy policy. Feels deceptive.

jwildeboer · 9h ago

My name is Jan and I am not an AI thingy. Just FTR. :)

underlines · 9h ago

Jan here too, and I work with LLMs full time and I'm a speaker about these topics. Annoying how many times people ask me if Jan.ai is me lol

dsp_person · 9h ago

We need a steve.ai

ithkuil · 3h ago

I want a Robert Duck AI

mathfailure · 12h ago

Is this an alternative to OpenWebUI?

apitman · 12h ago

Not exactly. OWUI is a server with a web app frontend. Jan is a desktop app you install. But it does have the ability to run a server for other apps like OWUI to talk to.

ekianjo · 11h ago

Openweb-ui does not include a server.

cristoperb · 7h ago

It starts a webserver to serve its UI, which is what your comment parent meant. It doesn't provide its own openai-style API, which I guess is what you meant.

apitman · 11h ago

I was referring to Jan.

PeterStuer · 8h ago

More an alternative to LM Studio I think from the description.

apitman · 6h ago

Jan also supports connecting to remote APIs (like OpenRouter), which I don't think LM Studio does

klausa · 10h ago

So this is how women named Siri felt in 2011.

lagniappe · 9h ago

Hello Jan ;)

reader9274 · 11h ago

Tried to run the gpt-oss:20b in ollama (runs perfectly) and tried to connect ollama to jan but it didn't work.

accrual · 7h ago

I got Jan working with Ollama today. Jan reported it couldn't connect to my Ollama instance on the same host despite it working fine for other apps.

I captured loopback and noticed Ollama returning an HTTP 403 forbidden message to Jan.

The solution was set environment variables:

    OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0
    OLLAMA_ORIGINS=*

Here's the rest of the steps:

- Jan > Settings > Model Providers

- Add new provider called "Ollama"

- Set API key to "ollama" and point to http://localhost:11434/v1

- Ensure variables above are set

- Click "Refresh" and the models should load

Note: Even though an API key is not required for local Ollama, Jan apparently doesn't consider it a valid endpoint unless a key is provided. I set mine to "ollama" and then it allowed me to start a chat.

No comments yet

thehamkercat · 10h ago

Exactly: https://github.com/menloresearch/jan/issues/5474

Can't make it work with ollama endpoint

this seems to be the problem but they're not focusing on it: https://github.com/menloresearch/jan/issues/5474#issuecommen...

semessier · 12h ago

still looking for vLLM to support Mac ARM Metal GPUs

baggiponte · 11h ago

Yeah. The docs tell you that you should build it yourself, but…

bogdart · 13h ago

I tried Jan last year, but the UI was quite buggy. But maybe they fixed it.

diggan · 11h ago

Please do try it out again, if things used to be broken but they no longer are, it's a good signal that they're gaining stability :) And if it's still broken, even better signal that they're not addressing bugs which would be worse.

esafak · 11h ago

So you're saying bugs are good?!

diggan · 11h ago

No, but maybe that their shared opinion will be a lot more insightful if they provide a comparison between then and now, instead of leaving it at "it was like that before, now I don't know".

venkyvb · 11h ago

How does this compare to LM studio ?

rmonvfer · 10h ago

I use both and Jan is basically the OSS version of LM Studio with some added features (e.g, you can use remote providers)

I first used Jan some time ago and didn’t really like it but it has improved a lot so I encourage everyone to try it, it’s a great project

angelmm · 10h ago

For me, the main difference is that LM Studio main app is not OSS. But they are similar in terms of features, although I didn't use LM Studio that much.

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Jan – Ollama alternative with local UI

Comments (66)