this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
178 points (97.3% liked)

Linux

47341 readers
1212 users here now

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.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Linus Torvalds Speaks on the the divide between Rust and C Linux developers an the future Linux. Will things like fragmentation among the open source community hurt the Linux Kernel? We'll listen to the Creator of Linux.

For the full key note, checkout: Keynote: Linus Torvalds in Conversation with Dirk Hohndel

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 17 points 19 hours ago (14 children)

Rust is harder to write but infinitely safer, and equivalent in speed.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 18 hours ago (13 children)

It's harder to write because it forces you to be careful.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 18 hours ago (6 children)

It forces you to be careful in the way it wants you to be careful. Which is fine, but it makes it a strange beastie for anyone not used to it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Yes

But the trade off is well worth it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

It can be, sure. I prefer garbage collectors but I'm not doing systems programming.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

I feel like a garbage collector would be too much a performance hit for kernel stuff.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

2 things:

  1. It's more the determinacy, a GC randomly fires up and your systems stops for some long amount of time. There are pauseless GCs but that's a different nightmare.

  2. The kernel has things similar to GCs. They're used for more specialized tasks, and some (like rcu) are absolute nightmares that have take decades to get working.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)