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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] 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

That's in no way what's been proposed. Rust is used in a very well defined niche, nobody wants to get rid of C.

But it's just that sentiment that got us here, you're arguing against a non-existent threat, and thus reject the whole proposal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm not rejecting it, I'm just saying that it's very difficult to completely change the code of a critical piece of software. The long-term goal is for Rust to overtake C in the kernel (from what I understand, I'm a System Engineer, not a software dev. I know Go, not Rust) due it being memory-safe and about 30 years newer. Critical code gets left untouched (a lot of the time) because no one wants to be the one that breaks shit (and get bitched out by Linus 😂) so I'm sure there is tons of code from the early 90s that could be made better with a newer language like Rust, but it's not as mature as C right now so that's not going to happen for a while, if at all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

The long-term goal is for Rust to overtake C in the kernel (from what I understand

Your understanding wrong. Rust is limited to some very specific niches within the kernel and will likely not spread out anytime soon.

critical code gets left untouched (a lot of the time) because no one wants to be the one that breaks shit

The entire kernel is "critical". The entire kernel runs - kind of by definition - in kernel space. Every bug there has the potential for privilege escalation or faults - theoretically even hardware damage. So following your advice, nobody should every touch the kernel at all.