NotebookLM's free tier does something Claude can't, and I stopped reaching for Claude because of it

XDA developers | May 2, 2026, 1:01 p.m. | Original
NotebookLM’s free tier proved something surprising: the best AI for research isn’t the one I expected.
I tested dual-boot, WSL2, and VMs to run Linux apps on Windows, and only one was worth keeping ESPHome turned my junk drawer into a smart home