Posts by squizzler 14 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Apr 2024
> Citation?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Hurd
"(GNU HURD) has been under development since 1990 by the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation, designed as a replacement for the Unix kernel, and released as free software under the GNU General Public License. When the Linux kernel proved to be a viable solution,"... (hence GNU/Linux for the pedants amongst us!) ..."development of GNU Hurd slowed, at times alternating between stasis and renewed activity and interest."
Yes, my little thing of calling it £inux might be childish, but my way of signalling it is not the counterculture OS of early 1990s anymore, Linux (£inux!) development is driven by the needs of big business now.
As Frederick says in his subsequent responses, Redox seems to be the way to go. With the COSMIC desktop they are most of the way there.
£inux as a kernel was of course only intended in the 1990s as a stopgap with the HURD being the ultimate aim. Redox - as a microkernel - seems to promise that which HURD does, but enjoys much greater momentum. The only problem it seems - for Redox being the basis of the GNU project going forward - is that Redox has the "wrong" MIT licence. Maybe that could be changed?
Of course there are other Rust operating systems than Redox cooking, including an implementation of Plan9. There is also the AGPL licensed Genode (not Rust). There needs to be a Plan B in case £inux (kernel) fails.
I believe the new operating system Redox would be a much more welcoming place for Rust enthusiasts to focus there efforts. in conjunction with the COSMIC desktop seems to be most of the way there.
Redox, being a microkernel, fulfils the promise of GNU HURD did. Did you know that Linux was only ever intended as a stopgap by the GNU project? Shame Redox is MIT licensed not GPL.
I think we are in for a sudden tipping point in both software and hardware, like the polarity of the earth's magnetic field every so often. Linux will be under threat by modern systems - perhaps built on "safe" languages - like Redox and possibly Genode. This will in turn open the door for refreshing the rest of the "stack" and include new architectures. So much cruft has built up over the years that I believe a clean sheet for much of computing is desirable.
Meanwhile in other news Redox 0.9 has just been released. Not only is that written in Rust, but you get a microkernel, Rust based Cosmic desktop and ease of porting Linux drivers and so forth.) Redox is not the only game in town, we also have Theseus and HarveyOS/r9
The failure of Rust in Linux is a good thing that enables creative destruction. It creates new niches and frees up Rust programmers for these new systems, many with features that could not be back-ported easily. And if you are a Rust programmer, wouldn't you rather work on a younger code base that allows you to grasp the bigger picture rather than sprawling Linux?
The greatest empires at the height of their powers will have already started the rot that will bring them down and operating systems are probably no exception. Linux and its surrounding scene are so bloated there is room for something more manageable as this publication's Liam Proven has noted many times.
The failure of Rust in Linux is, in my opinion, excellent news. It frees up Rust kernel developers for legacy-free projects such as HarveyOS' r9 (Plan 9 in Rust) or Redox. New generations of languages should be seen as an opportunity to explore new paradigms in OS design, not warm over old projects.
It is time to leave Unix kingdom OS in the past and step boldly into the future. Rust in linux would only have put new wine into an old bottle.
This proposal strikes me as a good way to accelerate the ossification of computing. If we decide we want to re-write everything from scratch, that should be the opportunity to throw stuff out, and re-think key things. The language itself should determine the paradigm of the OS and software: look at Oberon, Lisp machines, and to some extent the "object oriented" nature of Haiku written in C++. Rust for its part is leading to experimental OS such as Theseus.
Our civilisation more broadly is unable to clear out old stuff to make room for the new anymore. Consider the Boeing 737 - an airframe design that should have been retired over a decade ago. Instead they hang new engines off it and some new avionics and call it "job done".
Likewise, we seemingly cannot throw out old software and design, say, a new OS from the ground up for todays needs whose architecture can be inspired by its own choice of language. Instead we have today's most banal OS like windows and linux translated into a newer language - as if it were some sacred religious text being translated from its native tongue to English. Where is the progress?
I would like to see Genode promoted by the EU. Especially since the similarly designed Fuchsia from Google seems to have failed at this stage. This would offer both an opportunity for technical progress beyond Linux/Android and also much needed EU sovereignty over personal computing systems.
That Huawei is pushing its Chinese vision of state surveillance to compliment the US vision of business surveillance makes then eed for an EU vision of personal sovereignty over data even more pressing.
On that subject, perhaps the Reg might review the just-dropped edition of Genode Sculpt (their in-house desktop distro)?
Cleary the barb in your post got under the skin of some people. At the time of writing seven people have downvoted the post versus only me to give it the thumbs up. Ideally we would not downvote posts made in earnest because you disagree with the content. I suspect the reg might become a bit of an echo chamber.
I do wonder if IA-64 could become an open ISA along with so many others. And if so, Intel could use its foundry services to offer hobbyists a single board computer based on the ISA. It would be a massive comeback! And cheaper than trying to buy their way into RISC-V by acquiring Si-Five as they considered a few years back.
This is discussed in the linked post. The Reg has always had an unhealthy obsession with Itanium - mostly with dissing it - so if you fancy publishing it as an article, please knock yourselves out!
https://heartofwalesbikes.wordpress.com/2024/04/12/raise-the-itanic-could-intel-revive-ia-64/
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