He understands Rust and claims to like it. He simply disagrees with the decision to have a mixed language kernel and is trying to unilaterally stop it from happening.

This is such a red herring.

The Rust side we are talking about here have been involved for years. They have written amazing code (eg. Apple Silicon GPU drivers). There is an official Fedora spin based on their work.

What makes you think any of that is going to go away?

In fact, this whole incident shows their depth as the project lead quit Linux in disgust and was quickly replaced with another talented, dedicated, and proven developer.

There is a lot more drive-by C code you should worry about.

Instead of thinking about the bindings as part of the sub-system, think of them as part of the driver. That is what Linus is saying here.

The Rust code will be maintained, by those writing Rust code. By those writing the drivers. These are not junior people.

Except the bindings are written so that they can be used not just by this driver but others as well.

If companies write crappy code that calls into these bindings, that is nothing new. They do that today with C. Like C, the code will not be accepted if crappy and / or there is nobody credible to maintain it.

None of this is a good argument for not letting these bindings in.

That is not how it will happen, if it ever fully converts at all.

Rust will first be added in a way that allows it to run on top of existing C code. That is what we are seeing here with Rust being used to write drivers.

As sub-systems get overhauled and replaced, sometimes Rust will be chosen as the language to do that. In these cases, a sub-system or module will be written in Rust and both C code and Rust code will use it (call into it).

The above is how the Linux kernel may migrate to Rust (or mostly Rust) over time.

As devs get more comfortable, there may be some areas of the kernel that mix C and Rust. This is likely to be less common and is probably the most difficult to maintain.

Nobody wants to rewrite working, solid kernel modules in Rust though. So, it seems very likely that the kernel will remain mostly C for a long, long time. There are no doubt a few areas though where Rust will really shine

No need for a fork or a rewrite.

Agreeing

He is totally correct and it is great to see him finally step in to settle this drama.

I do not know why you say it is easy to break.

The Rust team are maintaining their side. I do not expect it to break. And the C code that the Rust code depends on is used by lots of other code. It should be a stable interface. Changing the C code just to break the Rust code would break a lot of C code too and upset a lot of folks.

And the who point is to create a more idiomatic interface on the Rust side. So, even if the c interface does change, it may only be a small amount of Rust code that needs to change in response.

The US has not really done all that much. That said, as above, others would have to step up.

But the US has mostly been sending old stock and then replenishing their own. All the money they claim to be sending is being spent in the US.

And anything actually new has been very, very slow rolled. Canada made the mistake of piggy-backing purchases on US orders. Air defence systems Canada fully funded (money to the US) in early 2023 are only being delivered now.

The biggest problem is likely to be Trump ditching the sanctions on Russia. Or even becoming a customer of Russian energy.

As funny as that joke is (and I have certainly laughed at it I the past), I do not believe the US is indispensable in the fight against Russia. Incredibly helpful yes. It will be a big loss. That said…

If the rest of us stay engaged, Ukraine will have what it needs.

I am much more concerned that the US will drop sanctions against Russia. Draining Russia’s bank accounts is critical.

Worse, as countries like Canada move their energy sales away from the US, I can see the US becoming a customer of Russian energy.

Also worried about Germany…

[edit: responded to the wrong comment. Moved]

I guess my comment here would be that you may not have either of them soon. Trump has talked about cutting military spending in half. He is certainly not going to spend that on healthcare.

I think you meant east.

With the number of Canadians leaving Florida, I don’t expect you will be needing much home construction soon.

The parallel is the country that Europe either appeases or opposes.

I hope they get it right this time.

If Trump takes Canada, he better occupy it and not integrate it politically.

Adding 40 million people to the US population without representation seems unlikely. With representation, that many people with Canadian opinions will mean no more Republican House or President for generations. Are the 10 provinces getting senate seats? 2 each? Never another red senate if that happens. Electoral College votes?

Honestly, he is going to add the second largest country in the world as a single state? Good luck.

Will 51st state Canadians be able to move to other parts of the US? Because just the snowbirds already there would turn Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada blue overnight.

I actually agree with you. I think there needs to be a global summit right now. Every country but the US is invited.

We need to figure out how everybody can stop buying or selling to the US immediately. We need to reflow trade to make that happen.

Yes, it will be painful. But, in my view, it needs to happen.

Too many Americans think the rest of the world can afford to think of Individual Americans right now.

The USA is attacking other countries. What individual US citizens think about that is irrelevant unless they can stop him. If they cannot, the rest of us need to treat the US as a single entity and defend against it accordingly.

What we have to realize is that, if this were WWII, the one playing Germany is now the US.

The lesson from WWII was that you do not appease the aggressor. Europe has to oppose the US. It does not matter how difficult that seems. They have to.

If not, Trump is not stopping at Ukraine. He will make demands of all of Europe while tariffing and cutting his own European defence spending the entire time.

The time to stand-up to Trump is now.

Back Ukraine. Stand up to the US. Russia is contained as long as we find Ukraine. The USA is not.

Have we forgotten that Trump has no power in Ukraine. All this means is that Europe has to provide a bit more funding.

Honestly, not even that much.

Keep fighting Russia without the US. Tell Trump to pound sand.

Anything sold after 2008 will do that. Before that too but you probably want 64 bit.