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Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

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Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#481
post #27

The Rust drama is an uncommon failure of leadership for Torvalds. Instead of decisively saying "no, never" or "yes, make it so," he has consistently equivocated on the Rust issue. Given the crisis of confidence among a sizeable (and very vocal) contingent of the Linux community, that decision has backfired horribly. And it's quite out of character for Linus not to have a blazingly clear opinion. (We all know his stan…

Linus actually writes C++ code though:

https://github.com/subsurface/subsurface/commit/1b16d570a1b6...

Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#482
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's because of Linus' age or because the players involved are bigger than many past issues, but the way I see it, both decisions are really costly: - Endorse Rust with little reserve and over half of the C++ devs will feel betrayed and quit supporting the Linux project. They've been working on C++ for Decades and things mostly worked, so they won't pivot for a new language and way of developing for something t…

> over half of the C++ devs will feel betrayed and quit supporting the Linux project. They've been working on C++ for Decades and things mostly worked, so they won't pivot for a new language and way of developing for something that exists for less than 30 years. You mean C? C++ has been dead and buried for years and there are 0 kernel devs thinking that C++ will ever be allowed in (that idea was killed in the 00s if…

There is an Indian fork of the Linux kernel that has C++ drivers:

https://bosslinux.in/bossmool

Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#483
post #461
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DMA infrastructure is core to drivers. Saying no to having a wrapper to use it in rust means every rust driver needs to reimplement it, which creates more work and issues.

Just curious. Why can't the wrapper be an independent library outside of the DMA infrastructure? It can still be used by all rust drivers. I think Hellwig is against moving the wrapper into the DMA project that he's forced to maintain it.

No, Hellwig also Nack'd the patch that added the wrapper to an independent library outside of the core C DMA directory.

Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#484
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's because of Linus' age or because the players involved are bigger than many past issues, but the way I see it, both decisions are really costly: - Endorse Rust with little reserve and over half of the C++ devs will feel betrayed and quit supporting the Linux project. They've been working on C++ for Decades and things mostly worked, so they won't pivot for a new language and way of developing for something t…

> over half of the C++ devs will feel betrayed and quit supporting the Linux project. They've been working on C++ for Decades and things mostly worked, so they won't pivot for a new language and way of developing for something that exists for less than 30 years. You mean C? C++ has been dead and buried for years and there are 0 kernel devs thinking that C++ will ever be allowed in (that idea was killed in the 00s if…

Typo. I meant C.

And I still think the culture clash angle should be taken more seriously.

An accomplished senior C dev can find good jobs writing drivers or microcontroller code more easily than starting over into a junior rust dev and being talked down by whomever joined the rust wave before them.

(which would be even more aggravating if the C dev is doing it since before the rust adopter was born).

Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#485
post #399
post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having read through the email thread, I think both vocal people are basically in the wrong here. There is a way to constructively disagree and the DMA maintainer did not do that. The Rust maintainer should not have brigaded using social media. The “in hindsight” version of how this should have gone without ego: * Patch adds Rust bindings to C API * Maintainer has concerns about increased maintenance cost and clarifie…

Both were wrong, but only one was corrected. > If the maintainer (or anyone) is unreasonable, then the only approach is to have someone with more authority weigh in and make the decision to bypass their objections or sustain them (which is sort of the direction this was going before the diatribes). While they were arguing, Linus said nothing. While the maintainer was issuing ultimatums, Linus said nothing. Linus only…

Apparently GregH(?) had already stepped in earlier to resolve the issue before it blew up again. But I’ve not been following it closely.

Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#486
post #27

The Rust drama is an uncommon failure of leadership for Torvalds. Instead of decisively saying "no, never" or "yes, make it so," he has consistently equivocated on the Rust issue. Given the crisis of confidence among a sizeable (and very vocal) contingent of the Linux community, that decision has backfired horribly. And it's quite out of character for Linus not to have a blazingly clear opinion. (We all know his stan…

How is it uncommon if the issues identified in this drama cycle (eg from here https://lore.kernel.org/rust-for-linux/208e1fc3-cfc3-4a26-98...) are systemic and have existed for many years? That's just a continuous failure of leadership, all ignored by said leadership under the pretense that "it works, so it must be right"

Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it technically does (kernel modules), but the difference between Linux and NT is that Microsoft guarantees (as much as possible) that its ABIs are stable whereas Linux explicitly does not preserve backwards compatibility in the kernel (only the userspace is the stable interface).

EDIT: Reading this: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/process/stable-api-... It seems like a huge technical factor holding back a stable ABI is the C compiler itself. Binaries changing between compiler versions and changing with different compiler flags. So while your code can be written such that it appears to respect the interface of an external library, the underlying binary representation might not line up…

DrillShopper has already posted (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42979848) the technical reason on why Linux does not do it this way: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/process/stable-api-...

Additionally, there is politics in play here. Not the politics that is normally discussed outside of HN, but the politics of having companies (at least) release the detailed specifications of their hardware. I cannot really state authoritatively what the Linux developers think on this side, but Linus brandishing his middle finger to Nvidia (https://youtu.be/MShbP3OpASA?si=GJ1_0B81b7bFY_iZ&t=2890) says a lot of things.

Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#488
post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afaik Linus tried Github in the past, but had several significant complaints about it hiding information, messing with basic git operations, generating bad commit messages, etc. . So it is not as if they wouldn't use something better, there just isn't anything that has feature parity with a workflow they have been optimizing for decades.

> [..] a workflow they have been optimizing for decades. it sounds the opposite of optimized to me. Unless we're optimizing for something other than developer experience and efficiency?

Once you realize the kernel workflow is optimized for Linus’s (and a few other top honchos) efficiency it all begins to make sense.

Any change introduces anomalies and those cause all sorts of hell.

Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, apparently it doesn't.

Well, apparently nobody even noticed for 5 years, so that's 5 years that nobody had to even think about that code.

Nah, people noticed, and then they thought "Linux always has these kind of issues, I'm going back to [whatever other OS]" because 99.9% of users will never even TRY to report a bug.

Re: Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

#490

Marcan certainly can be abrasive (I mean lol, so can Linus), but all the things he points out in the message below are 100% valid - I highly recommend for anyone here to try to contribute something even very small and logical to the Linux kernel or git (which use similar processes), it’s an eye-opening experience that’s incredibly unapproachable, frustrating, and demoralizing. https://lore.kernel.org/rust-for-linux/2…

I've contributed here and there over there years, even got something merged that broke Linus's printer driver. It really isn't unapproachable, frustrating, or demoralizing.

You broke Linus’ printer driver and you’re still alive to post? WOW! ;)
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