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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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One Of The Rust Linux Kernel Maintainers Steps Down - Cites "Nontechnical Nonsense" (www.phoronix.com)

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

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Wedson Almeida Filho is a Microsoft engineer who has been prolific in his contributions to the Rust for the Linux kernel code over the past several years. Wedson has worked on many Rust Linux kernel features and even did a experimental EXT2 file-system driver port to Rust. But he's had enough and is now stepping away from the Rust for Linux efforts.

From Wedon's post on the kernel mailing list:

I am retiring from the project. After almost 4 years, I find myself lacking the energy and enthusiasm I once had to respond to some of the nontechnical nonsense, so it's best to leave it up to those who still have it in them.

...

I truly believe the future of kernels is with memory-safe languages. I am no visionary but if Linux doesn't internalize this, I'm afraid some other kernel will do to it what it did to Unix.

Lastly, I'll leave a small, 3min 30s, sample for context here: https://youtu.be/WiPp9YEBV0Q?t=1529 -- and to reiterate, no one is trying force anyone else to learn Rust nor prevent refactorings of C code."

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[+] [email protected] -20 points 2 months ago (6 children)

If Linux gets rewritten in Rust it will be a new kernel, not Linux. You can make new kernels, even in Rust but they aren't Linux. You can advertise them at Linux conferences but you can't force every Linux dev to work on your new Rust kernel.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago

There is no "your" new rust kernel. There is a gigantic ship of Theseus that is the Linux kernel, and many parts of it are being rewritten, refactored, removed an added all the time by god knows how many different people. Some of those things will be done in rust.

Can we stop reacting to this the way conservatives react to gay people? Just let some rust exist. Nobody is forcing everyone to be gay, and nobody is forcing everybody to immediately abandon C and rewrite everything in rust.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Isn't Linux still Linux even though probably a lot of the original code is gone? Why would slowly rewriting it whole, or just parts, in Rust make it stop being Linux?

[–] repungnant_canary 13 points 2 months ago

Ship of Theseus

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Nobody is proposing rewriting the whole kernel in Rust.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Is a single line of code in the kernel completely unchanged since its birth?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Linux is whatever the Linux Mark Institute says it is.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

the crew on the Ship of Theseus would like a word with you. Because if you strip out every subsystem and replace them with a different language, everyone would still call it Linux and it would still work as Linux.

Linux isn't "a bunch of C code" it's an API, an ABI, and a bunch of drivers bundled into a monorepo.

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

Linux is a development ecosystem. If everyone agrees to switch to Rust it can switch to Rust with continuity. But they won't.