this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (8 children)

Rust is the future for this sort of systems programming work, and by failing to see that and accommodate its use both Linus and Hellwig are sabotaging the long term viability of the kernel imo. New devs are keen to jump on rust because of how much it does better than C/++ and how much easier it is to make safe and secure systems with it, but shit like this just demotivates that crowd and thins the pool of people who are willing to contribute going forward. We need memory safety by default, the task of kernel stability is only going to get more complex and unsustainable without it. Stop holding onto tradition and purity for the sake of it

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Two things can be true at once:

  • More Rust in the Linux kernel is good
  • Brigading on social media is bad

Open source work is collborative. No matter how good an engineer someone is, if they can't figure out how work with others, then it's better to kick them out. A potentially insecure kernel is better than a non-existent one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I agree. I think Hector Martin should not have endorsed that sort of behavior to whatever extent he did. But I also think long term that the sorts of behavior that’s keeping these rust patches out of the code base will kill the future of the project. The reasons given aren’t even applicable since the patches are in their own branch of the tree. But I agree brigading is not the way to address these sorts of organizational issues

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