The Hardware Behind the Exit Protocol

The Exit Protocol runs on three machines. Each one has a specific role: inference, creative work, and utility. Together they form a system that doesn't rely on cloud services or web-dependent tools.

Mac Studio M4 Max

Platform: macOS Sequoia
Role: Inference server and DAW connected with my Yamaha Genos workstation
Stack: llama.cpp, Affinity Suite, Brave, Harrison Mixbus Plus

Zephyrus G15

Platform: Windows 11 Pro
Role: Graphics and coding
Stack: ComfyUI, Blender, FreeCAD, Voicebox, Zed Editor, Goose, Brave

Dell Precision 3440

Platform: CachyOS KDE
Role: Web design and coding
Stack: Thunderbird, Opencode, Zed Editor, Ardour, Brave

Notes

macOS Sequoia: In order to retain as much system RAM as possible for llama.cpp, I have decided to not upgrade to Tahoe 26.

Windows 11 Pro: As a Linux user since 1999, running Windows on my LAN is an experiment. Thanks to Rufus and the brilliant Windows Utility by Chris Titus, things run fine. Then again, my LAN is airgapped almost all the time. My favorite Windows feature is to be able to create a system image which, in the age of AI, is a must have.

Dell Precision 3440: This basic computer came initially with Ubuntu and over the years, I have run openSUSE Tumbleweed, Manjaro, Fedora, GhostBSD and now CachyOS. Hundreds of websites and dozens of software programs have been made on this machine. It's my most used node.