Following arguments on the Linux kernel mailing list the past few days over some Linux kernel maintainers being against the notion of Rust code in the mainline Linux kernel and trying to avoid it and very passionate views over the Linux kernel development process, Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin has removed himself from being an upstream maintainer of the ARM Apple code.
The holy and sage advice of the dino developers is to not do Rust. You know, not do a thing that Saint Linus himself authorized. Except Saint Linus is apparently not willing to walk the walk in this particular case.
We’re overdue for a Linux fork anyway.
Not a fork of course but there is Redox
https://www.redox-os.org/
Maybe im wrong but with ARM being the new cpu architecture, rust being new, wayland coming into maturity, etc, it appears as though there might end up being a more x86/x11/C focused legacy kernel and a forked ARM/Wayland/Rust focused new generation one.
Which honestly im fine with. And kinda makes sense. Especially if we get into an era where stuff like x86 starts to get phased out entirely. Which i think we will in the next decade or so. Remains to be seen if thatll happen but i think theres a decent chance at this point.
RISC-V is the “new” CPU architecture
Is there anything in the kernel that makes it compatible with X11 or Wayland over the other? I know that there’s a graphic driver discussion in the background, but still.
No. The kernel does not care about X11 vs Wayland. Or rather, both X11 and Wayland use KMS ( Kernel Mode Setting ) and DRM ( Direct Rendering ) these days. That is, both X11 and Wayland call on the same kernel features.
Im not a dev so idk about that tbh. But i know atleast that programs have issues with it. Its pretty good these days but some stuff still has to use Xwayland as a compatibility layer.
The kernel is unrelated to the choice of display manager.
Correct.