rust Vs c drama getting out of hand

I think (aka speculate) that the fact that Windows is the largest OS plays into the fact that Linux-Mac compatibility isn’t more developed.

I bet some 90% of desktop software is available on Windows (even many core KDE are on Windows!) so targeting them brings most Apple apps onto Linux “for free”. Especially since Apple’s insistence on trying to make Metal a thing hurts gaming support, which is a big driver behind Linux compatibility development.

The few applications that MacOS has over both Linux and Windows are usually so embedded into the Apple ecosystem that you’re not getting much by porting them anyway. iTunes? The App Store? Garage Band? Probably doesn’t help that many of those apps also use Apple’s own UI framework which isn’t really portable.

However, stuff not designed to live in Apple land like Teams for Mac or Adobe CC might be more possible. But still far too few applications to necessitate the effort to bring them over.

Pop is the only one that really ever makes any reference to windows in its marketing. I’m more talking about distros like Zorin which are targeting public sector orgs and windows users by bundling windows compatibility apps and features into the ISO.

The other examples definitely do also target “new users” which of course means Windows users too, but they aren’t explicitly tying their distros to Windows software compatibility the same way some are.

I did some reading in AV1 and it’s derivative formats - are they any more accessible to Linux than HEVC/H265? Fedora IIRC removed support for them and a few other codecs out of the box over some patent concerns or something.

Fucking hell you could cut the Reddit-tier snark with a knife.

BSD is more binary compatible than Windows. The fact there’s less MacOS ports on Linux seems to me like a lack of resources, but if you have a reason beyond 🤓☝️ then I’m genuinely interested.

MacOS still ships x86 builds, and most software either provides binaries for both platforms or some kind of universal/hybrid binary. Still a few years before that becomes an issue.

At some point an ARM->x86 translation layer is going to be needed too, regardless. It’s not long until ARM becomes popular enough to make it necessary to translate both ways.

Yup. Same issue will plague all Windows-alternative distros. Unless serious work is done to fix Microsoft 365 and Adobe creative cloud, there’s genuinely little benefit trying to claim Linux is an alternative for all but a minority of people.

That, or we can work on improving the alternatives to those apps. GIMP, Inkscape, and OnlyOffice are on a spectrum of laughably bad to just-about-comparable to their proprietary counterparts.

I don’t think it’s an insurmountable issue: I think there’s more we could do to bring Apple software to Linux (using a BSD-based kernel means a lot less complexity!) and with it the few applications that currently don’t play well with WINE.

Thing is, none of those advantages are real either, compared to a public database and API. Steam’s inventory API already maintains items beyond the lifetime of games, AND you can use items across other games. You can’t manipulate the Inventory of other games but I bet if there was demand (there isn’t) this could be implemented easily.

Google’s involvement is weird, not for any conspiracy reasons but because the chromium team previously cancelled JPEG-XL.

Genuinely surprised when I see people running mail servers without issue. I suppose getting in relatively early means you’re not immediately sent to junk mail lists by the big players.

the crew on the Ship of Theseus would like a word with you. Because if you strip out every subsystem and replace them with a different language, everyone would still call it Linux and it would still work as Linux.

Linux isn’t “a bunch of C code” it’s an API, an ABI, and a bunch of drivers bundled into a monorepo.

Rust’s memory safety is at compile-time. Java relies on a virtual machine and garbage collector. Nothing wrong with that approach but there’s a reason Rust is used in kernels and Java is used in userspace apps.

As an aside, the DRM and its support for the supposedly superior-on-linux AMD-powered devices is atrocious. I’ve had my laptop since January and it’s a model from 2023, but it still regularly has mega display corruption from memory mismanagement that might be improved from a certain language feature not offered in C.

DRM in this context (as mentioned by the other comment) is the interface between the userspace graphics drivers (Mesa, Nouveau, Nvidia etc.) and your graphics devices. It handles pretty much everything for rendering from displays to power management and memory synchronization, in a cooperative way that stops crashes due to race conditions, memory corruption etc.

Your point about it being a culture issue is spot on. Many maintainers who are established in the kernel have made it clear they’d rather keep the status quo and the comfort of stagnation rather than bring a new technology forward to improve the security of their systems.

If it wasn’t Rust, but some other language with similar benefits, the same people would’ve thrown their hands in the air and complained that they’re being forced to rewrite everything or some other hyperbole.

Because it’s a FOSS project, for some reason it’s acceptable for maintainers to be entitled arseholes who abuse anyone they personally have a vendetta against.

In any other workplace, this behaviour wouldn’t be called “nontechnical concerns” it would be called workplace bullying. And as much as Linus wants to say he’s working on his anger issues, he is personally one of the contributors who has set this culture of aggression and politicking as much as any other.

This isn’t Rust’s fault lmao, this is distro maintainers trying to fuck with dependencies on software which has been proven to be a horrible way of managing software distribution for years.

When it’s a problem with other languages, we don’t pin the blame on them. However, because Linux and its developer community is being dragged by its heels to accept ANYTHING more modern than C99 and mailing lists, the typical suspects are using any opportunity to slow progress.

The same shit has happened/is happening with Wayland. The same shit will happen when the next new technology offers a way for Linux to improve itself. A few jackasses who haven’t had to learn anything new for a lifetime are gonna always be upset that new Devs might nip at their heels.

Because it’s Rust it’s now “rust bad” but Debian and other distros have been fucky with dependency management for YEARS. That’s why we’re moving to flatpak and other containerised apps!

Once again, the wider Linux dev community is trying to openly kneecap the first attempt in decades to bring Linux and its ecosystem up to a vaguely modern standard.

TLDR Debian and the traditional Linux package management system is antiquated and insecure, but somehow this is the fault of one of the many programming languages that is designed around the sensible expectations of being able to manage your own dependencies.

I feel the same every time I see JavaScript. C++ is one of those ugly but also elegant languages you should try at least once.

All you need nowadays for a decent Unix-like is compatibility with a handful of Linux softwares and a web browser. Hell, if you could get WINE working on your kernel you could maybe support as many Windows apps/games as Linux for free.

The big issue, as I see it, is performant drivers for a wide range of hardware. That doesn’t come easy, but I wonder if that can be addressed in a way I’m too inexperienced to know.

But projects like Redox are a genuine threat to the hegemony of Linux - if memory safety isn’t given the true recognition it deserves, projects like Redox serve to be the same disrupting force as Linux once was for UNIX.