[darthrupert]

Why insist on developing in Rust? I mean, I see how it's much cooler and actually better than something like C, but people are hugely underestimating how difficult it is to change the established language of a 3 decade old project.

If Rust is the point you get up from the bed in the morning, why don't you focus on Redox and make it the new Linux? Redox today is much more than Linux was in 1991 so it's not like you would be starting from scratch.

You're probably not as good as Linus in, well, anything related to this field really. The only way to find out whether you actually are is to do the work. Note that also he spent a lot of time whining to people who were perceived as the powerful in the field. But in addition to whining he went and did the work and proved those people wrong.

[maples37]

I remember reading one of the earlier Asahi Linux blog posts on HN a while ago: https://asahilinux.org/2022/11/tales-of-the-m1-gpu/

Mind you, I'm a PHP developer by day, so this Rust-vs-C debate and memory management stuff is not something I've had experience with personally, but the "Rust is magical" section towards the bottom seems like a good summary of why the developer chose to use Rust.

Discussion at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33789940

[tcmart14]

Oh no, I totally agree. I am just saying from the perspective of the Asahi Linux project and wanting to use as much Rust as they can, that is what they are facing and the associated trade offs.

I personally fall a little more on the side of the Linux kernel C devs. Inter-oping languages and such does bring in a lot of complications. And the burden is on the Rust devs to prove it out over the long haul. And yes, that is an uphill battle, and it isn't the first time. Tons of organizations go through these pains. Being someone who works in a .NET shop, transitioning from .NET Framework to .NET core slowly is an uphill battle. And that's technically not even a language change!

But I do agree, Redox would probably less friction and a better route if you want to get into OS dev on an already existing project and be able to go "balls to the walls" with Rust. But you also run into, Redox just has a lot less of everything. That is just because it's a small project.

[caycep]

would be kinda neat if they made redox a drop in kernel replacement, kind of like MkLinux back in the old Apple days