| --- |
| license: gpl-3.0 |
| language: [en, es, pt, fr, de, ja] |
| tags: [linux, linux-mint, operating-system, local-ai, llama.cpp, gguf, assistant, offline] |
| base_model: CinMin/guide-4b |
| pipeline_tag: text-generation |
| --- |
| |
| # Cin-MinAI 0.0.1 — Linux Mint with an AI built in |
|
|
| **An operating system with an AI assistant built in.** It runs on your own computer, on your own graphics card, and |
| works without the internet. It helps you use your computer, build things, learn and write, and it asks before it |
| changes anything. |
|
|
| **Free. No ads, no telemetry, no account.** Download it and use it wherever, however you need it. |
|
|
| Website: **[cin-minai.github.io](https://cin-minai.github.io)** · Source code: **[github.com/Cin-MinAI](https://github.com/Cin-MinAI/Cin-MinAI)** |
|
|
| ## Download |
|
|
| **[cinminai-0.0.1-amd64.iso](https://huggingface.co/CinMin/Cin-MinAI-OS/resolve/main/cinminai-0.0.1-amd64.iso)** — 5.9 GB (5,899,288,576 bytes) |
|
|
| SHA-256: `ae74be30c25a3e14d3a9ca4620e570de2b4318f50f5912d659de01c2553bdeb0` |
|
|
| This is the **first public alpha**. It works and it's tested on real hardware, but it's early. Try it from a USB stick |
| first: trying it changes nothing on your computer. |
|
|
| ## Try it |
|
|
| 1. **Download** the ISO above and check its SHA-256 (Rufus can do it for you). |
| 2. **Write it to a USB stick** of 8 GB or more with balenaEtcher or Rufus, from Windows, no commands: |
| [step-by-step guide](https://github.com/Cin-MinAI/Cin-MinAI/blob/main/docs/install/make-usb-stick.md). |
| 3. **Start your computer from the stick** (the boot menu key is often F12, F11, F8 or Esc). The assistant works right |
| away, even offline: a small model comes on the stick. |
| 4. **Install it** on a drive when you're ready. |
| 5. **Use it every day** and find out what it's good for. |
|
|
| No picture? See the [hardware notes](https://github.com/Cin-MinAI/Cin-MinAI/blob/main/docs/hardware.md). |
|
|
| ## What it does today |
|
|
| - **Your computer's assistant:** it reads the system's own records and explains problems in plain words. |
| - **Learn Linux, coming from Windows:** Mint's real menu names, numbered steps, the right settings opened for you — |
| in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Japanese. |
| - **Coding, teaching and planning (AICUI):** it builds projects with you, explains your mistakes before fixing them, |
| breaks the work into goals and ticks each only when the project's own checks pass. It asks before every change. |
| - **Writing:** story projects that ask you questions until the idea comes together, and a private journal. |
| - **In the lab, coming next:** it watches videos and reads photos and scanned letters for you. |
|
|
| ## What's on the ISO |
|
|
| Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon (Ubuntu 24.04), unchanged except for our packages, plus the built-in guide model |
| ([CinMin/guide-4b](https://huggingface.co/CinMin/guide-4b), Qwen3.5-4B fine-tuned, Apache-2.0) beside the live system |
| so it works offline from the stick. llama.cpp runs every model. Updates come from our signed apt repository, |
| [cin-minai.github.io/cinminai-apt](https://cin-minai.github.io/cinminai-apt/) (key `7EA7 4B93 128A A958 65E2 BA39 77CA 19E6 2644 70F6`, |
| kept offline and used by hand for each release). |
|
|
| **Checked before release:** the live system differs from Mint's by exactly our packages and their named dependencies; |
| the boot setup is Mint's own; `md5sum.txt` matches; the model is on it once; it boots in a VM, and installs unattended. |
|
|
| ## What you need |
|
|
| - A 64-bit PC that runs Linux Mint 22, and an 8 GB USB stick. |
| - For full speed, a graphics card with 6 GB or more: NVIDIA (GTX 10 series and newer) or AMD (less tested — reports |
| welcome). Without one it still works, slowly, on the processor. |
| - Disk space: what Mint needs (20 GB) plus about 3 GB for the built-in model. |
|
|
| ## Where it's going |
|
|
| Today, Cin-MinAI is an AI assistant built into Linux Mint. The direction — a direction, not a promise — is AI moving |
| down the stack: an assistant on the OS today, the AI as the session next, and one day an AI-first OS on a small, |
| deterministic core. Every decision, result and failure is written down in the open: |
| [PLAN](https://github.com/Cin-MinAI/Cin-MinAI/blob/main/docs/PLAN.md) · |
| [development journal](https://github.com/Cin-MinAI/Cin-MinAI/blob/main/docs/dev-journal.md). |
|
|
| ## Credits and licences |
|
|
| Led by **Ian McClenathan**; built with AI assistants (Gemini, Claude, Codex), none preferred. It stands on Linux Mint, |
| Ubuntu, Debian, the Linux kernel and GNU, llama.cpp, the Qwen models, LibreOffice and Mozilla. |
|
|
| Our code is GPL-3.0-or-later; documents and data CC BY-SA 4.0; the guide model Apache-2.0. Linux Mint and the other |
| software on the ISO keep their own licences. Cin-MinAI is not affiliated with or endorsed by Linux Mint. |
|
|
