this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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Linux

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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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[–] PushButton 1 points 3 hours ago
[–] Amaterasu 3 points 4 hours ago

I can't have an impression good or bad about this news. I'm not sure if Rust is an interesting thing. I saw people saying good things about it and other talking hellish about the number of dependencies.

I don't program for a long time. Used to like coding in C quite a lot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

What OSes do not have any Rust code?

[–] PushButton 2 points 3 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

noob here, does this mean rust will come included on Linux, similar to python?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

No. It's only about the kernel itself, not Linux Systems(aka Distributions).

Earlier the kernel did only consist of C code, but for some time now the option to develop parts of the kernel in Rust is being worked on. In the end it both compiles to native machine code. The running kernel does not require the Rust toolchain to be present.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

Yeah, Python requires a "runtime" program, which interprets the Python code and then translates it into native machine code to actually execute it. Because Rust is compiled directly to native machine code by the developer, you don't need a runtime program on your PC to run Rust programs.

This is also one of the biggest reasons why Rust can be used for kernel development. You cannot rely on a runtime program for developing a kernel, since launching a program requires a kernel to already be up and running.