Comment by unethical_ban
10 months ago
It sound like there are two major questions:
Do the demigods of the Linux kernel - Linus and the core maintainers - personally want the kind of code Asahi is developing to be merged into the kernel? The author writes as if part of his drive was that Linus himself showed enthusiasm for getting Linux on Apple Silicon.
If there is interest in the work Asahi has done, then the Linux team needs to describe what they see as the gap between today's code quality and support model and what they want to see before upstreaming.
It sounds like the Linux team has been wishy-washy and needs to draw a line in the sand on their needs rather than handwaving about being part of the "community".
It would be fair to say "we don't like your attitude or trust you to work with us kindly over the years and don't want to deal with you", if that's the case. Just don't dance around it.
> The author writes as if part of his drive was that Linus himself showed enthusiasm for getting Linux on Apple Silicon.
Perhaps the author jumped to conclusions after Linus himself started using Asahi Linux on his own laptop for Linux kernel development[0]. Note the praise for the Asahi team in the commit message.
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32311150
And it sounds like you read just one side of the story, with no background in Linux kernel internals. This is about how C APIs are typically inherently unsafe, Rust people wanting to build safe(r) abstractions on top, and a question of who is responsible for changing what code when it's time to refactor the underlying C API. And yes, marcan is being overly dramatic, though he is not alone in that.
I do not claim a background in Linux kernel internals. I'm a human who has seen teams miscommunicate in the past, and see it now. I'm not sure what I said that drew hostility.
It sounds like you agree with me though. The Linux team needs to clearly define the expectation they have for code maintenance from the team trying to upstream Rust code (edit) and the Asahi team needs to acknowledge how/if they can meet those expectations.
Well, stop accusing people who's work you don't know of being wishy-washy.
The challenge is not dictating from high above some criteria; the challenge is discovering the criteria that will let the Linux project continue development as well as can be arranged. This is why you'll hear Linus say it's a learning experience, and not just make proclamation of how things shall be (at this stage).
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