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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Rust in Linux lead retires rather than deal with more “nontechnical nonsense” (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Linux people doing Linux things, it seems.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (34 children)

part of the problem is that old-time kernel developers are used to C and don't know Rust," Torvalds said. "They're not exactly excited about having to learn a new language that is, in some respects, very different. So there's been some pushback on Rust."

Linus hit the nail on the head. If you've been a Kernel dev for a decade or more, and have spent decades learning the ins and outs of C, why would you want to switch to something that is similar, but different in a lot of ways, just because a small subset of devs think it's the best way forward? Let them handle Rust and the majority of devs will keep using C, even though Rust is objectively better.

As one of the other quotes suggested: fork the kernel project and rewrite it entirely in Rust, that way there isn't any push back from the C devs. Replacing C with Rust in the upstream kernel is akin to replacing the engine in a car while it's running or being used every day.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Tl;Dr: Old farts holding us back, as always

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

I'm not a software dev, but I'd imagine that the codebase could definitely be reduced once most things are converted to Rust. From what I've heard, the kernel is a huge mess of spaghetti code that most people don't want to touch, for the fear of going insane in the process 😂

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