Episode Details

There have been major Rust developments in the Linux Kernel; we discuss what's new and how it will impact the future. Plus, we're joined by a special guest.

Sponsored By:

• Tailscale: Tailscale is a programmable networking software that is private and secure by default - get it free on up to 100 devices!
• 1Password Extended Access Management: 1Password Extended Access Management is a device trust solution for companies with Okta, and they ensure that if a device isn't trusted and secure, it can't log into your cloud apps.
• River: River is the most trusted place in the U.S. for individuals and businesses to buy, sell, send, and receive Bitcoin.

Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

• Get started with River
• 💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
• 📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
• Planet Nix - Speakers
• SCALE 22x
• Greg Kroah-Hartman Makes A Compelling Case For New Linux Kernel Drivers To Be Written In Rust — Yes, mixed language codebases are rough, and hard to maintain, but we are kernel developers dammit, we've been maintaining and strengthening Linux for longer than anyone ever thought was going to be possible. We've turned our development model into a well-oiled engineering marvel creating something that no one else has ever been able to accomplish. Adding another language really shouldn't be a problem, we've handled much worse things in the past and we shouldn't give up now on wanting to ensure that our project succeeds for the next 20+ years. We've got to keep pushing forward when confronted with new good ideas, and embrace the people offering to join us in actually doing the work to help make sure that we all succeed together.
• Kees Cook on Rust in the kernel — In other words, I don't see any reason to focus on replacing existing code -- doing so would actually carry a lot of risk. But writing new stuff in Rust is very effective. Old code is more stable and has fewer bugs already, and yet, we're still going to continue the work of hardening C, because we still need to shake those bugs out. But new code can be written in Rust, and not have any of these classes of bugs at all from day one.
• Linus Re: Rust kernel policy — You are not forced to take any Rust code, or care about any Rust code in the DMA code. You can ignore it. But "ignore the Rust side" automatically also means that you don't have any say on the Rust side.