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Why not include support for running those 'legacy' C drivers in that new Rust kernel? Sure, you'd be giving up some of the memory guarantees, but that's no diff
by bo0tzz 5y ago
Why not include support for running those 'legacy' C drivers in that new Rust kernel? Sure, you'd be giving up some of the memory guarantees, but that's no different from when you include some Rust into the current kernel.
- rini17 5y agoThere's no stable ABI for drivers. So much even Linux kernel itself isn't compatible with its drivers without their constant maintenance.
- rcxdude 5y agoThere's not even a stable API for drivers. The interfaces they use get changed and rewritten all the time.
- phendrenad2 5y agoMy pet conspiracy theory is they do this to discourage kernel forks, so that Linux doesn't become fragmented.
- mariusor 5y agoI think supporting linux drivers was already tried in other kernels (I remember a talk Andrew Tanenbaum gave at a FOSDEM) when he tried to incorporate them in Minix v3 and he and his team gave up in frustration.