Conversation

Jarkko Sakkinen

Firefox has been using Rust since 2017 and about fifth of its code that was previously in C/C++ has been written in Rust (see Oxidation sub-project).

I'd expect slower cycle for Linux than Firefox. I think this would be likely truth for operating system with decades of legacy (e.g. BSD derivatives).

This makes me think that making any conclusions after two years is simply not a pragmatic mindset.

#rust #linux #kernel
2
7
9
Accepting the reality, breathing once in a while (instead of holding your breath all the time) and thinking that you are doing a long journey instead of a fast track would be in my opinion the signs of sanity when it comes to "community friction" ;-)

If getting frustrated that it might be even a good idea to write your own OS from scratch or something similar, and take a break from Linux. There's bunch of fostering work in that area especially when it comes to special purpose OS's. It's good for Linux too since all the innovation for any operating system will reflect innovation to other operating systems.

I personally have phases in Linux and that way keep hanging in the community. Right now I don't do much active development but still review and test patches and stuff like that. My implementation efforts are completely elsewhere (should finish hardware backed asymmetric keys tho some day, last update for that patch set in April ;-) ).

This way any Linux madness does not get into me too personally: I have other nolife too ;-)
1
0
1
If I get a toxic response I imagine myself as being in a customer service. They get worse shit EVERY single day. It's good to actually think your reactive mindset BEFOREHAND you are in a situation where someone gets into your nerves.
0
0
1

Hello, @jarkko !

Good point.

Could you please point to references for your interesting statement.

I'm not acquainted with the Linux kernel development like you, and all references I could find gave me the impression that most of Rust development for the Linux kernel was restricted to drivers, not for the kernel itself.

1
0
0
@hgfernan So for example:

https://openhub.net/p/firefox/analyses/latest/languages_summary

Native ("non-XUL") code covers 49.1% so Rust's share is slightly better but I think I got it roughly correct ;-)
1
0
1
@hgfernan Openhub from Synopsys is super useful for doing this type of comparisons.
1
0
0

Indeed, @jarkko !

Openhub is great.

Thanks for your references.

1
0
0

But maybe you'll agree with me, @jarkko, that Rust adoption in Linux kernel is still very, very limited.

Isn't it ?

1
0
0
@hgfernan I'm not going to agree on anything since you are talking about stuff that can be plain observed. There is no topic to debate here.
1
0
1

I'm sorry, @jarkko

Please forgive my lack of knowledge about this topic.

I will try to learn more about that.

1
0
0

@jarkko I think that the page you indicated is
https://openhub.net/p/linux/analyses/latest/languages_summary

According to it, there are already ~7000 pages of Rust code in Linux.

May I suppose that was achieved in a very short time ?

0
0
0