The next version of the Linux kernel may come with support for the Rust programming language, suggested creator Linus Torvalds.
At the Linux Foundation’s Open Source Summit, Torvalds told the audience that support for Rust in the Linux kernel could come with version 5.20 of the operating system.
The wider Linux community is quite excited at the prospect, with audience members giving Torvalds a round of applause at the mere mention of Rust, VentureBeat reported earlier this week.
Since the programming language was added as a second language to the kernel code in December of last year, developers (opens in new tab) have been eagerly awaiting the moment of the actual merger.
still an experiment
“A lot of people actually think we’re a little risk averse,” Torvalds said. “So when it comes to Rust, this has been discussed for several years now. It’s getting to the point where soon we’ll have it really merged into the kernel. Maybe in the next release.”
But Torvalds still stuck to his options, saying that if things go wrong, the support might not last long.
“Before the Rust people get all excited, for me it’s a test, right? We want to have Rust’s memory security. So there are real technical reasons why Rust is a good idea in the kernel,” he said.
“But at the same time, it’s one of those things: we’ve been trying C++ for over 25 years and we’ve tried it for two weeks and then we stop trying. So for me Rust is a way to try something new. And I hope, it works, and people are working really hard on it, so I really hope it works out, because otherwise they’ll be upset.”
This isn’t the first time Torvalds has mentioned Rust in this context. In April, he said it could be merged with the 5.14 Linux kernel. We are currently at 18.5.6.
Despite facing an uphill battle against Windows and MacOS, Linux is the world’s most popular alternative operating system, powering many IoT devices and data center servers, with Linux laptops. (opens in new tab) experiencing healthy demand as well.
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