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Such new OS exists already (Redox). It's actually really good and can run modern DEs (Cosmic) and some recent commercial games (Balatro). The problem with this
by mappu 2y ago
Such new OS exists already (Redox). It's actually really good and can run modern DEs (Cosmic) and some recent commercial games (Balatro).
The problem with this direction is it dooms Linux to obsolescence. Thanks to Rust's memory safety, Redox has achieved a level of security and crash-resistance that Linux cannot hope to achieve with C. With everyone (including the US Govt) pushing for memory safe code, this has a negative impact on the whole world's major investments into Linux.
To mitigate the sunk costs, Linux needs to compete on memory safety. C has no viable solution so Rust is the only option.
- ChocolateGod 2y ago> To mitigate the sunk costs, Linux needs to compete on memory safety. C has no viable solution so Rust is the only option. Isn't Zig designed as a viable solution? IIRC being easily compatible with C is one of its features.
- aw1621107 2y agoProbably depends on what exactly you're looking for in a viable solution. Zig does not provide the same level of memory safety as Rust does (IIRC it doesn't protect against data races and doesn't offer (complete?) temporal memory safety), so if what Rust provides is the bare minimum you want Zig won't cut it.