Longform pieces that take a stance.

Balanced comparisons lose to bigger sites. These guides don’t balance — they call the shot.

Each piece is dated, verified against primary sources, and written to answer one specific question with a clear recommendation. No SEO filler, no “it depends.”

ANTI-HYPEWhen NOT to run local AIA plain-spoken list of the workflows where cloud wins outright — and the workflows where the local evangelism is, frankly, wrong.Read →UPGRADE LADDERThe honest upgrade ladderIf you already have an RTX 3060, a Mac mini M4, or a 4090 — here is the single next purchase that actually changes what you can run, per use case.Read →RUNNERSOllama vs LM Studio vs JanUse Ollama unless you want a GUI or a fully copyleft stack. Three runners, one recommendation per case, with honest weaknesses called out.Read →AMD ROCMAMD Radeon for local AI (ROCm)Workable if you already have the card. Not a reason to buy AMD over NVIDIA in 2026. The honest friction write-up.Read →CPU-ONLYCPU-only local AI: who should run itWorks for narrow tasks. 5–10× slower than GPU. This piece tells you which workflows survive and which ones don’t.Read →BUYER · MACLocal AI on Mac M5 Max 64 GBBuy it if you were buying M5 Max anyway. Don’t buy it specifically for AI. The prefill-latency reality check.Read →BUYER · NVIDIARTX 5060 Ti 16 GB for local AIThe $550 sweet spot. Best-value NVIDIA card for local AI in 2026. Why the 16 GB variant is always the right pick.Read →VOICE · STACKThe local voice stack actually worksOpen-WebUI plus Kokoro for English narration, MOSS-TTS-Nano for multilingual, Chatterbox for cloning, Parakeet for STT. The honest 2026 stack.Read →COMPARISON · NVIDIARTX 5090 vs RTX 4090 for local AIUsed 4090 still wins on $/perf for most local-AI buyers. Four specific cases where the 5090 is the right buy — and the 12V-2x6 premium nobody prices in.Read →

Start with the practical fork

If you're comparing runners, AMD cards, or measured speed, start here. Read Ollama vs LM Studio vs Jan, then the AMD ROCm reality check, and validate the hardware claims against the local LLM benchmark table.