3 ms·
Who would use a kernel that is essentially the mainline kernel with more Rust? Would Debian or Red Hat use it? Maybe some very hard-core Rust hobbyists, but oth
by mmooss 2y ago
Who would use a kernel that is essentially the mainline kernel with more Rust? Would Debian or Red Hat use it? Maybe some very hard-core Rust hobbyists, but otherwise, why use the Rustier kernel?
But if they could demonstrate significant improvements in security and stability, then they would have something to say. Maybe the plan should be to rewrite a component that the mainline maintainers wouldn't agree to - something important with a significant affect on security and stability. Yes, it's a risk, but if their claims for Rust are true, then it shouldn't be a problem. If Rust doesn't offer a major improvement then it isn't worth the effort anyway. Put their money (or time) where their mouth is.
- steveklabnik 2y agoThere are drivers that exist only in Rust, so any distro that wants to support that hardware will. Like the Apple A3 silicon graphics driver. Iirc red hat and nvidia are also working on some Rust based drivers.
- mmooss 2y agoDo the Rust drivers provide significant benefits over C equivalents (or over typical C drivers), enough to make it worth switching? Rust may have to really prove itself with results. And why shouldn't it?
- steveklabnik 2y agoThere are no C equivalents for the drivers I’m talking about.
- mmooss 2y agoI got that - that's why I added the parenthetical. My point was the second sentence. Anyway, thanks for the input about the drivers. And for what it's worth, I expect Rust would offer significant improvements.
- steveklabnik 2y agoAh, sorry, I misunderstood you. I don’t have a link handy, but Marcan had a post about how they actually re-wrote some in progress drivers from C to Rust because it was easier to do, and so didn’t expect a c version to exist. Basically it was about how driver complexity has increased over time, and Rust helps tackle that in a way that C can’t.
- mmooss 2y agoYes, I realized later that I should add 'efficiency' (for development) to security and stability, which could also be a big win for Rust in particular.