this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
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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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Not an expert in both the languages but I heard that C developers are trained to use memory smartly, sometimes even reuse a range of allocated memory for completely different purpose to save cycles freeing and reallocating. But for Rust developers, everything is about making sure when one should get the hand away from the memory, and whose memory is allowed to be touched.
Sounds to me like sharing rides that maximise economically but we may have some oops moments sitting on someone's laps vs absolute private rides to make sure no one in your family will be harmed but we have to make sure everyone gets a car only when needed.
It is quite interesting to see how it will work out eventually...
Kernel coders are an entirely different breed, and when I worked with a few of them they were just stunning. The smartest man I know on the planet so far coded on the Unix kernel -- the one that IBM forced back to Novell who'd already fired their staff after selling it, and thus shelved it and killed Unix. He is and was amazing.
So yes, I can confirm that Kernel devs know how to manage their memory -- they use very little, they allocate and free it, and they build very small, tight, optimized kernels by knowing how the optimizer will do things and how to hint it to do what they know needs to happen.
Yeah, it's a skill. Yeah, it takes skilled people. I'd like to one day find out that really big training wheels will let anyone build code that well, but I've seen the goal and I don't expect we're there yet.
Let the kernel be built by kernel devs.
I guess the question is, what happens to the kernel when all the people who learned on C are gone? The majority of even the brightest new devs aren't going to cut their teeth on C, and will feel the same resistance to learning a new language when they think that there are diminishing returns to be had compared to what's new and modern and, most importantly, familiar.
I honestly get the hostility, the fast pace of technology has left a lot of older devs being seen as undesirable because the don't know the new stuff, even if their fundamental understanding of low level languages could be a huge asset. Their knowledge of C is vast and valuable, and they're working on a project that thrives because of it. To have new people come to the project and say "Yeah, we could do this without having to worry about all that stuff" feels like throwing away a lot of the skill they've built. I'm not sure what the solution is, I really don't think there are enough new C developers in the world to keep the project going strong into the future though. Maybe a fork is just the way to go; time will tell which is more sustainable.