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Dev tools · July 20, 2023

Ollama – Run LLMs on your Mac

Hi HN A few folks and I have been working on this project for a couple weeks now. After previously working on the Docker project for a number of years (both on the container runtime and image registry side), the recent rise in open source language models made us think something similar needed to exist for large language models too. While not exactly the same as running linux containers, running LLMs shares quite a few of the same challenges. There are "base layers" (e.g. models like Llama 2), specific configuration to run correctly (parameters, temperature, context window sizes etc). There's…

Ollama – Run LLMs on your Mac launched on July 20, 2023 with 284 votes, #103 of 4,347 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 3 years on.

Visit github.com ↗Alternativestop 2% of July 2023

In plain words

Ollama lets users run large language models locally on Mac computers. Built by former Docker developers, it handles the infrastructure challenges of running open-source models like Llama 2, managing configuration parameters, temperature settings, and context window sizes. The tool treats language models similarly to how Docker handles containers, providing a streamlined way to download, configure, and execute models without relying on external services. It is aimed at developers and researchers working with open-source language models.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Get up and running with Kimi, GLM, MiniMax, DeepSeek, gpt-oss, Qwen, Gemma and other models. - ollama/ollama

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hi HN A few folks and I have been working on this project for a couple weeks now. After previously working on the Docker project for a number of years (both on the container runtime and image registry side), the recent rise in open source language models made us think something similar needed to exist for large…

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  • MG
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    Hello HN, I've been working on this project for a while, and it has been in an "open" beta for some time. I finally believe it's ready for its first release. I hope you like it. Here are some potential questions that may arise: 1. How does it compare to LM Studio? It's likely that if you're already using LM Studio, you'll continue to do so. This project is designed to be more user-friendly. 2. Is it open-source? No, it is not. 3. Does it use any open-source libraries? Yes, it uses llama.cpp and a few others, as indicated in the license information included with the application. 4. Why is not…

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