@jani I look mainly at the data. Firefox at 20% (2017-2024) now. Based on that my rough guess would be that within 5-7 years timeline we have 20% * 0.1 (complexity factor out of top of my head) = 2% of code that is in some defconfig. That is probably also about the time needed to GCC-Rust to catch up, which is literally a hard constraint because a defconfig's need to compile only with a GCC toolchain.
I don't think making Linux clang only would ever receive a positive response. Why I see defconfig level adoption happening in a longer timeline is that in input validation and all kinds of syscall/uapi layer stuff Rust adoption would have undebatable benefits.
I believe I have fairly weighted argument. I've used professionally Rust in user space code since 2022 (and actual low-level stuff like memory manager for Intel SGX enclaves), which I believe gives some basis also for my guess.
Like AI, blockchains, pick-your-hype-tech it is IMHO both uneducated to say that they are a hoax, and also that they solve every possible problem.