Incredible how software companies can be actively hostile to customers.

IRC is great. The challenge is picking a client for the family, and getting them set up. It’s not friction free.

Jitsi is good as an ad hoc communication tool, but it won’t replace a “chat / sms” tool. I took a small peek at SimpleX, and it looks quite complex. Not sure if it really is.

OVMS + a model that was built for it is far more responsive than llamacpp.

You can run an LLM, but it will be limited. Look into Open Vino Model Server.

I’d recommend a minimal install distro (Ubuntu server, Arch, Gentoo, etc…), then add the things you need from there.

Document every step. <— important

And their dog.