ChatGPT For Linux

Saying that there's been a lot of hype around ChatGPT lately might be somewhat of an understatement, as many consider it to be the next big thing for our lives, while others fear the potential doom and gloom associated with AIs.

Nevertheless, ChatGPT is one of many AI-powered tools that have made their way into our lives as of late, and you probably already know all about it. In short, it's a AI-powered chatbot created by OpenAI. It was trained on a massive dataset of text and it learned how to generate complex human-like responses to prompts.

Even though the name might suggest that ChatGPT is an official tool, please note that, in this case, ChatGPT is a unofficial wrapper that brings most of the benefits of ChatGPT on your computer's desktop. In short, it might be a decent solution for people who don't want to rely on their browsers to access ChatGPT.

It has bespoke binaries for Linux, macOS, as well as Windows. In terms of features, it boasts text-to-speech, system tray/taskbar/top bar integration, and it allows you to export the history to a wide range of formats (PNG, PDF, and Markdown).

You also get customizable global shortcuts, a pop-up search, and support for slash commands and their configuration.

For starters, let's talk about the obvious. We already mentioned that this is not an official OpenAI-endorsed app, but rather an unofficial wrapper that simply brings the functionality of ChatGPT on the desktop.

Since the app is build using Tauri (and due to various security restrictions), some action buttons are not active (they do not work), so if you want or require full functionality, it's advisable using the web app via your browser.

Then there's the elephant in the room, the app's name, which is (strangely) exactly as the web app's official name. Thankfully, since it's open-source, you can check for yourself and see all the wrapper's underpinnings, meaning the risk of potential security issues is quite low. It's also advisable that you check out the app's official GitHub repository, so that you're sure about the nature of the app.

In terms of functionality, one could argue that ChatGPT (the wrapper) brings a bit of value over the official web app since it can be accessed from the desktop. However, there are various reasons why using the official app via a web browser is a better choice, however, that choice is yours.