| The conclusion slide appears at about 1:02:00 so you can skip there if you just want a four-sentence answer to the question posed in the title. The first five minutes or so lead up to a rough definition of what he means by "Operating System" for the purposes of this talk, essentially systems software that abstracts some physical or virtual model of hardware and runs programs that use those abstractions. However, in addition to the privileged mode OS kernel he includes things like system libraries and services in the scope of the subject. This is followed by a historical overview of various operating systems and programming languages — particularly systems languages — and how they shaped each other. Finally, Rust is compared and contrasted with historical and incumbent languages and the systems developed in those languages. Despite his enthusiasm about Rust, Bryan finds that rewriting extant OS kernels in Rust should not be the top priority. The Operating System as defined in the introduction includes firmware and user mode services that can benefit from Rust's memory safety even if the system core remains in C or C++. Since Rust interoperates well with other systems programming languages, there is no need for an all-or-nothing approach. I don't think my summary does justice to the talk. Bryan's talks very often look at things from a historical perspective, which I and others quite enjoy. The rambly tangents are actually my favourite parts of a Cantrill presentation and the conclusions may feel rather mundane if taken on their own. If you don't enjoy the first minutes, you may need to adjust your expectations or simply decide this style is not for you. |