Ollama simplifies the process for developers to utilize open models. Founded by former Kitematic creators, Ollama has rapidly gained popularity in the AI development community.

Ollama can be installed on a Mac mini with Apple Silicon using Homebrew with the command `brew install --cask ollama-app`, which includes auto-updates and the MLX backend. A minimum of 16GB of unified memory is required for running Gemma 4, and the Ollama app will appear in the Applications folder and the menu bar after installation.

Ollama is now powered by MLX on Apple Silicon, offering significantly improved performance for applications on macOS. This enhancement accelerates personal assistants like OpenClaw and coding agents such as Claude Code and OpenCode.