I ditched LM Studio for llama.cpp, and my local LLM doesn't feel like a downgrade anymore

A non-developer user shares their experience switching from LM Studio to llama.cpp for running local LLMs. Despite initial fears about terminal complexity, setup took only five minutes using prebuilt binaries. Key advantages include 5-20% faster inference (since llama.cpp is the backend engine LM Studio wraps), earlier support for new models, native audio input support for Gemma 4 E4B, cleaner reasoning display, MCP server integration, and advanced sampling parameters like DRY, Mirostat, and Dynamic Temperature. The built-in web UI means the experience is still GUI-based after initial setup.