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I wouldn't see it that way. First, Debian is not a distro where users have to compile their software. The packages contain binaries, the compilation is already
by onli 11mo ago
I wouldn't see it that way.
First, Debian is not a distro where users have to compile their software. The packages contain binaries, the compilation is already done. The instability of Rust would not affect users in any way.
And second, as a developer, I never had a more unpleasant language to work with than Rust. The borrow checker back then was abysmal. Rust is not about developer happiness - Ruby is - but its memory safety makes it a useful option in specific situation. But you can be sure that many developers will avoid it like a plague - and together with the breakage and long compile times that's probably why moves like the one dictated here are so controversial.
- brainwad 11mo ago> The instability of Rust would not affect users in any way. Sure it would. Suppose a rust-based package has a security bug. Upstream has fixed it, but that fix depends on some new rust language feature that the frozen version of rust in Debian doesn't have yet.
- onli 11mo agoThen the responsible Debian maintainer would backport that fix, as they have done in other languages for decades. Really, that's not user facing. It's a possible hassle for the maintainers and developers, which might be bad enough, but not a problem for users.