603: All Your Kernels Belong to Rust

A Unplugged Presentation

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.

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• 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.
• Texas Linux Fest is back again in 2025!
• Pick: treetrum/amazon-kindle-bulk-downloader — Allows you to bulk download all your Kindle eBook in a more automated fashion. This tool allows you to create backup copies of the books you've already purchased.
• Amazon removes your right to download Kindle books
• Amazon will stop allowing Kindle book downloads to your PC soon
• How to Download Kindle Books to Your Computer Before Amazon Kills the Feature
• Simplest Way to Remove DRM from Books – No Kindle Serial Number Needed!
• Pick: nping — 🏎 Nping mean NB Ping, A Ping Tool in Rust with Real-Time Data and Visualizations