I’ve been disappointed by local models in the past. But then I checked Qwen 3.6, and I was in awe. For me it’s the first local model that actually makes sense as a general intelligence.

It comes in two variants, a mixture-of-experts model Qwen 3.6 35B A3B , and a dense Qwen 3.6 27B - slower, but more powerful. The one I recommend!

Let me share my impressions, and show that you can run it too.

It’s hot, literally. When my knees started to melt, I grabbed a phone-attached thermal camera and took a photo.

Qwen 3.6, rightfully, got a lot of coverage on Hacker News . The most common statement about Qwen 3.6 27B is that it punches above its weight - see Will it Mythos? . And I think it is a well-deserved sentiment. It will make your computer hot, but it’s worth it!

Testing the waters

Simon Willison uses “penguins on a bicycle” as a smoke test (see for Qwen 3.6 35B A3B and then Qwen 3.6 27B ).…