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In a candid keynote chat at the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit Europe, Linux creator Linus Torvalds shared his thoughts on kernel development, the integration of Rust, and the future of open source.

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[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 129 points 1 week ago

People need to chill with the language fanaticism. It’s one thing to make jokes and rip on a language for its quirks, but at the end of the day it’s just a language. If you truly don’t like it, don’t use it. I’m going to take a stab and guess that there is enough Linux kernel source to go around to both the c devs and rust devs. Just be glad they’re not trying to rewrite it in JavaScript. 😉

[-] WalnutLum@lemmy.ml 53 points 1 week ago

The problem is that the Linux kernel is monolithic so introducing rust into it does have certain repercussions about downstream compatibility between modules.

Right now the rust code in the kernel uses c bindings for some things and there's a not-insignificant portion of C developers who both refuse to use rust and refuse to take responsibility if the code they write breaks something in the rust bindings.

If it was pure C there would be no excuse as the standard for Linux development is that you don't break downstream, but the current zeitgeist is that Rust being a different language means that the current C developers have no responsibility if their code refactoring now breaks the rust code.

It's a frankly ridiculous stance to take, considering the long history of Linux being very strict on not breaking downstream code.

[-] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago

Yeah sorry, c/c++ guy here.

I get that rust is the new shiny.

But now it means changing any potentially bound c function means I need to be fluent in a language I barely heard of before this year and has a syntax that makes c# look normal.

So, how about no?

[-] HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago

You just have to document your code. Nothing more.

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this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
314 points (98.5% liked)

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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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