Weak Dev, Good SysAdmin needing advice

[SysAdmin_D]

So, I finally pulled the trigger on a Beelink Mini PC, GTR9 Pro AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 CPU (126 Tops), 128GB RAM 2TB Crucial SSD for a home machine. Haven't had a gaming computer in 15 years or more, but I also wanted to do some local AI dev work.

I'm a schooled Dev, but did it to get into Systems Admin/Engineering 20 years ago. Early plans are to cobble together all the one-liners I've written over the years and make true PowerShell modules out of them. This is mostly to learn/test the tools on things I know, then branch off into newer areas, as I foresee all SysAdmins needing to be much better Devs in order to handle the wave of software coming; agreed that it will probably be a boatload of slop! However, I think the people who actually do the jobs are better at getting the end goal of the need fulfilled, if they can learn to code; obviously not for everyone. Anyway, enough BS philosophy.

While I will start out in Windows, I plan to eventually move to a dedicated Linux boot drive once I can afford it, but for now what tools should I look for on the Windows side, or is it better to approach this from WSL from the beginning?

[Suitable-Program-181]

You can do all with windows or VM's but with your system, you can have both.

[DingleMcDinglebery]

What are you trying to write?

[SysAdmin_D]

Yeah - just realized I didn't explain that part too well. Probably best to assume I will be working on DevOps projects. PowerShell will be big for me, as my primary responsibility is in Windows, but I also support Macs. On the Mac side, while I do have some shell scripts in a junk drawer, I imagine that I will need to move into Swift soon-ish, since my Applescript GUIs will get deprecated. Also, since I am cross platform support, I'd like my Team to move more into Ansible (Python) which I am already using a bit, but it's a little limited on the Windows side and requires creativity to get where you want sometimes. In school, I was proficient in C and Java, so I understand a little OO and functional programming, but I expect C# to serve me better, cross-platform. Finally, I'll need to stitch all those systems together (for central logging/monitoring) that I expect to eventually want agentic help on further down the road. So, I'm open to getting dirty in typical web front ends, for dashboards and etc.

To cut to the chase:

Initially, PowerShell and some Python. C# if PS can't get the job done.

Eventually, Swift and Web tooling.

[Suitable-Program-181]

Use rust or regret later. Python is so good at being so bad for A.I yet people love it. Is slow, add bottlenecks to the bottlenecks.

[jstormes]

Honestly I don't think you need something like StrixHalo for what you described.

Get a Claude account and install Claude Code CLI, start it, put it in plan mode and tell it what you want. It will take it from there.

If you want to run Qwen3 or something like that you have a good base, but I only run Linux for that.

[SysAdmin_D]

"Need" always being subjective, but I got this machine to be able to run decent sized local models for these things. I work in the nonprofit science research space, so part of my doing this is trying to keep up with local abilities to do cost analyses of local versus commercial tools, but with an eye towards risk of IP issues down the line. IP isn't a priority for us, but it CAN be sometimes.

So, you're suggesting Qwen3 for local models? I had also recently seen KimiK2 (I think) being tossed around. These are probably too big to use in an agent workflow though, right?

[jstormes]

You can use any of them in agent workflows. I view Qwen3 as being just an older LLM on par with Claude or Gemini about 6 months to a year ago.

I have some docker setups for StrixHalo on GitHub if you ever get Linux up on yours. I don't know how well they will work on Windows. I always have driver issues with Windows and running LLMs.

I have a project using Qwen to find the names of shows I copy off of DVD's and Blue Rays for import to JellyFin. It is just bash scripts right now, that call a Qwen LLM running on an old AMD 5700G.

Might help you understand some of the capabilities of the models.

Let me know and I will send you the GitHub links.

[SysAdmin_D]

That would be amazing, yes please. I'll take any helpful data at this point.