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In a candid keynote chat at the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit Europe, Linux creator Linus Torvalds shared his thoughts on kernel development, the integration of Rust, and the future of open source.

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[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago

I feel you’ve missed my entire point. My comment was not based on any technical merits of a language. It’s about a persons personal (religious) view of a tool they use to do their job.

I proudly use PHP, JavaScript, Java, Bash, and SQL. They have given me the means to make a long and fruitful 18+ year career. If my boss walked up to me tomorrow and said I needed to learn Python, or Rust, or even brainfuck, I’d learn it and be better for it.

Would it be as easy as my tried and true toolset? Not at first. I still remember the struggles I had when I was first learning my current toolset. It was frustrating. I remember cursing how stupid this or that was (especially PHP and JavaScript). But I learned, and now they’re not as frustrating — because I work with it, and not against it.

Look at JavaScript. Yeah it’s weird sometimes; if you don’t understand how it works. So people slap these transpiled languages or frameworks (like CoffeeScript or TypeScript or whatever) on top, trying to fix the things they think are wrong with JavaScript, and end up making a chaotic mess of the entire community. (And yes we could spend months arguing pros and cons of any merits of transpires and frameworks and why and what not, but then you’re still missing the point).

Anyway, the point is: if it works, then it’s good. Rust does not make Linux worse. If anything, it makes it better because it makes it more accessible to programmers who know Rust but not C. And that’s a good thing. It ensures the Linux kernel will be around longer than whomever ends up being the last C developer.

Those C developers bitching about how they don’t like the idea of rust in their kernel are akin to those old fogies yelling about those damned kids and their loud music or fashion sense.

this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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