One of the biggest questions I get at Drop-In Time at the library (besides "what is taking up all my cloud storage??) is how to disable or avoid intrusive AI that shows up where people don't want it.

[jessamyn@glammr.us]

@ariarhythmic These are not people who can install their own software in general so while I will mention it (for sure! all the options!) I suspect it will not be an option for them.

[jessamyn@glammr.us]

@gcvsa Yeah this is generally not a Linux crowd but I will forward it as an option. If there is a Linux distro that is easy/possible to install on old Macs (with instructions) that is what I am looking for, personally.

[jessamyn@glammr.us]

@gary_alderson I'm sure that's true but my earnest question remains.

[gcvsa@mstdn.plus]

@jessamyn i am typing this on a 2012 MacBook Pro running Linux Mint Debian Edition 7. It runs flawlessly, no weird tricks to the install.

[blbc@universeodon.com]

@jessamyn It’s really getting bad; I searched for something Monday that would’ve come right up a year ago, but instead I got stuck with a huge AI explanation that didn’t have diddly squat to do with the resource I was looking for—and I was using DuckDuckGo.

[fedward@distraction.party]

@jessamyn @gcvsa I’m liking @elementary on my 2015 MacBook Pro. I’ve had a few adaptation issues, but the trackpad behavior and gestures are close enough to what I’m used to that it doesn’t feel as foreign as, say, Linux Mint.

[eivind@mastodon.fjerland.no]

@jessamyn You, madam, are a hero. And long live librarians!

[gcvsa@mstdn.plus]

@fedward @jessamyn @elementary I haven't used elementary since 0.4, and at that time, it was OK, but maybe still a little rough around the edges. I'm sure it's improved since then.

[ravenonthill@mastodon.social]

@jessamyn one suggestion is not to use Chrome, which is just loaded with "AI" sea lions. But the thing is just everywhere; I don't think that's a realistic suggestion unfortunately.

[robotnextdoor@fosstodon.org]

@firebreathingduck @jessamyn I installed Vivaldi on my Win11 machine at work just yesterday. Happy to report the default SE was StartPage.

[jessamyn@glammr.us]

I have consolidated many of these suggestions into a document with a few other links. Anything major that I am missing? This is mostly for the types of users I interact with (mainly older adults) so I did not include things like Slack and I'm not sure about things I don't use much like Outlook or Facebook. Other suggestions for links about removing AI geared towards not-very-technical people?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nYLmQLYZy_Mg-Dh6iME6R61Jjh4L6sRrw1v2dLXs9aE/edit?usp=sharing

[alexandra@digipres.club]

@jessamyn https://tenbluelinks.org/ if they'd like to still use google search

[palleas@mastodon.social]

@jessamyn this just popped on my timeline, so thank you for taking the time to put this together
Does DuckDuckGo's no-ai page merit a mention? https://noai.duckduckgo.com/

[jessamyn@glammr.us]

@Palleas Yes it does, thank you!

[sourcejedi@mastodon.social]

@jessamyn
MS Edge?

Last time Ars updated, you had to turn off both Copilot, and the then-revealed sidebar button, in order to get the Edge main menu button to appear in the corner, like it should do.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/what-i-do-to-clean-up-a-clean-install-of-windows-11-23h2-and-edge/

I don't remember having to turn off the sidebar last week though, only Copilot.

[cynblogger@sfba.social]

@jessamyn
I can’t help but sense irony in your using Google docs for distribution…

[rrb@infosec.exchange]

@jessamyn @Palleas you can set that to be default search engine

[rrb@infosec.exchange]

@cynblogger @jessamyn pastebin?

[enno@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@jessamyn Firefox finally has their AI crud behind a single off switch now, that should get a mention.

[antony@mastodon.ie]

@jessamyn The irony of using a Google doc, a service loaded with AI, to list how to remove AI is in many ways genius - it's teaching AI the answer when folk ask how to strip it away