this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
441 points (95.3% liked)
linuxmemes
30114 readers
677 users here now
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
- Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
- Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html
2. Be civil
- Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
- Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".
- Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.
- Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
- Bigotry will not be tolerated.
3. Post Linux-related content
- Including Unix and BSD.
- Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of
sudoin Windows. - No porn, no politics, no trolling or ragebaiting.
- Don't come looking for advice, this is not the right community.
4. No recent reposts
- Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves/tolerates/hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
5. π¬π§ Language/ΡΠ·ΡΠΊ/Sprache
- This is primarily an English-speaking community. π¬π§π¦πΊπΊπΈ
- Comments written in other languages are allowed.
- The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.
- Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.
6. (NEW!) Regarding public figures
We all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations. - Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.
- We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.
- Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed. Β
Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to write software in C that is very secure. It takes thought but C has the edge with its small footprint and system integration
Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to write software in assembly that is very readable. It takes thought but assembly has the edge with its miniscule footprint and zero-dependency runtime.
I wouldn't go that far
The problem with assembly is that it is almost impossible to optimize it as a human. Way back in the day instruction sets were written for humans but these days it is highly unlikely that you will be able to write assembly that can outperform a compiler. The reason primary has to do with pipelining and caching since modern CPUs are extremely complex.
That's btw. also a good argument for Rust. Due to the strictness of the language the compiler os able to do optimizations that just aren't possible (safely) in C or C++
https://esolangs.org/wiki/Brainfuck
Yea I mean it's possible, but the sooner you bite the bullet and use a more modern language, the sooner you'll get back to the same level of maturity and start having productivity dividends being paid out thanks to things like being able to get your compiler to prevent use after free bugs and the like.
Not sure how much sudo specifically needs this, maybe new commits are rare. As long as it stays out of LTS for the time being I'm all for it though.
Also not quite sure what you mean by "footprint"
Are you talking about the binary size or the fact that C has a tiny and straightforward language spec?
At this point I think the "thoughtful" C programmer is a myth and I don't mean this as an insult. Even the most careful and experienced C gurus still make mistakes that would be much harder to make, if not categorically prevented in something like Rust. A lot of very secure C software is small in footprint, has had stable requirements for years, experienced thousands of hours of real world testing by users and the scrutiny of security experts. What I'm saying is: it should be easier to write secure software, especially with complex requirements or large attack surfaces.
I disagree that C has a notably smaller footprint than Rust for most purposes and system integration is in some cases harder in Rust precisely because of the notorious upfront implementation cost that prevents a lot of potential bugs.