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It's just my intuition built by reading LKML and following Linux kernel development for 20 years. There are a lot of folks waiting for something mergeable befor

It's just my intuition built by reading LKML and following Linux kernel development for 20 years. There are a lot of folks waiting for something mergeable before a torrent of criticism (and I'd imagine outright NAKs) comes down. I think a lot of Rust people read Linus's "I don't hate it" as explicit approval. But anyone who's followed LKML knows that this is not the case.

vlovich123 5y ago
That’s a surprising read given Linus’ general overall positive sentiment to the preliminary interactions. Yes there are concerns but it seems like the team involved is working on solving them & believes it is a tractable problem, not to mention strong support from the Rust standard library maintainers. There are always risks but I wager this is far more serious than past attempts like the C++ one which never had any significant commitments from the standards body to support kernel needs. That Rust is building a language that can fit wildly different use-cases (embedded, kernel, web servers, systems programming, etc) without serious sacrifices for other use-cases is truly impressive to me.
- creamytaco 5y ago
  Even if Linus wants it, and this is a big stretch since "I don't hate it" is best characterized as neutral and not positive, there are others who have a say. Remember what happened with KDBUS? Gregkh fought long and hard to get it merged but in the end it didn't happen because too many people didn't want it.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    I agree, Linus is likely pretty neutral on the topic. In the world of kernel development though, feeling "neutral" about something is about the highest praise it can receive. In other words, there's not much else that Torvalds could do to welcome Rust developers besides writing a kernel patch in the language himself.
toast0 5y ago
Given the current target seems to be more or less Rust for loadable device drivers, even if it never gets merged, it could develop to the point where out of tree modules could be done consistently in Rust.

vlovich123 5y ago

That’s a surprising read given Linus’ general overall positive sentiment to the preliminary interactions. Yes there are concerns but it seems like the team involved is working on solving them & believes it is a tractable problem, not to mention strong support from the Rust standard library maintainers. There are always risks but I wager this is far more serious than past attempts like the C++ one which never had any significant commitments from the standards body to support kernel needs. That Rust is building a language that can fit wildly different use-cases (embedded, kernel, web servers, systems programming, etc) without serious sacrifices for other use-cases is truly impressive to me.

creamytaco 5y ago
Even if Linus wants it, and this is a big stretch since "I don't hate it" is best characterized as neutral and not positive, there are others who have a say. Remember what happened with KDBUS? Gregkh fought long and hard to get it merged but in the end it didn't happen because too many people didn't want it.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  I agree, Linus is likely pretty neutral on the topic. In the world of kernel development though, feeling "neutral" about something is about the highest praise it can receive. In other words, there's not much else that Torvalds could do to welcome Rust developers besides writing a kernel patch in the language himself.

toast0 5y ago

Given the current target seems to be more or less Rust for loadable device drivers, even if it never gets merged, it could develop to the point where out of tree modules could be done consistently in Rust.