It's an alternative to llama.cpp, the server running the actual models, it should be more user friendly and "plug and play" wrt llama.cpp.
Discussion
from what I understand it just makes it easier to swap models, but it still uses llama.cpp under the hood.
Sorry, yeah it's more like a wrapper than an alternative.
Yes, but don't discount that value. I used to run llama.cpp on the command line because it's amazing that you can ./a-brain. These days I run ollama on the GPU computer and connect to it from my laptop or phone using Zed or Enchanted.