Asterinas: a rust kernel with a linux ABI (asterinas.github.io)

submitted 1 month ago by onlinepersona@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev

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Linux maintainers are unwilling to get rust into the kernel, so some rust folks decided to start writing a new kernel with same ABI. This allows them to make new architectural decisions. An example being their "frame kernel" (something between a monolithic kernel and a microkernel).

If I may say, it's more legible and the tooling is way better, right off the bat.

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[-] toothbrush@lemmy.blahaj.zone 40 points 1 month ago

I was interested until the website proudly stated that the kernel is not under the GPL, but the weak copyleft MPL. Great, an alternative to the linux kernel for companies to steal, yay...

[-] anzo@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

I'd love to live in a solarpunk world where intellectual property was abolished. In the meantime, compromises are met and it's no horror at all.

I feel you, but maybe GPL is just an unpopular option (linux kernel never upgraded to v3, only a few oss web apps use affero, etc.)

As much as I love libre software, I have to say that Linux had bad support for drivers because of it, and its mainstream adoption for desktops was hindered for decades because of it. Only today, we celebrate a 5% user share.

An alternative permissive license doesn't immediately mean companies will do the worst. We live under capitalism, perhaps we can't just change that with a license. Their decision might future-proof the project to higher heights that are hardly seen today.

Look at Android, yeah it's a hell of a locked down system when you buy a new phone. But it works quite well, and their user share is at the very top (or second to Apple? Maybe, if you're American). However, Android allows us to have LineageOS and Graphene (which is MIT license, but that's beyond my point, iiuc it could very well be GPL for all of its customizations), and no matter which license these forks(?) use, privacy is preserved and taken to new levels. Meanwhile, Android or any of these alternatives support ARM architecture with great integrated video acceleration that is low power. These are not simply "nice features" but a requirement (e.g. saves energy, improved user experience, competitive to other platforms, etc.) and privacy is not really compromised.

P.s. I'm suprising myself with this comment, nearly 10 years ago I was obsessed with libre software. Today I find it more of a niche hobby, or intellectual challenge. Valuable nonetheless, sure. And hell yeah I'd like to have a linux phone which fully supports all software and hardware... But then, reality.

[-] toothbrush@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

ok, just a few points from me, typed very quickly because im in a hurry so forgive me if its not very coherent:

the gpl is very popular, its the apgl that has less popularity. The gpl is used by thousands of software projects, and the linux kernel is one of the few projects that did not upgrade to v3, many did, but still, they use the gpl! Thats not an argument against it! Using gplv2 is still fine!
if the linux kernel was more permissive we would absolutely not have better drivers. The linux kernel supports a crazy amount of hardware, a lot more than any other OS! How can you say that support is poor? Bad Drivers are mostly nvidia, broadcom, and chinese vendors that ignore the gpl, and yes, these drivers are bad because they dont want to open source anything(or, my guess, its because of low market share). But imagine that the kernel was MIT. Suddenly, wow, nvidia and broadcom might release more drivers, amazing my laptop wifi card works now! Exept 5 years later the driver breaks in creative ways and broadcom isnt interested in fixing it because its out of support. Proprietary drivers arent the solution to bad drivers, they are bad drivers by their design. its the reson why nvidia drivers are hated, because they are mostly closed binaries so nobody can fix them, and they develop them their way so wayland etc is still buggy. If it was MIT nothing would change in this situation, exept they have more legal possibilities of making badly integrated drivers.
you gave andoid as an example, but that uses the linux kernel? The "good" driver support is kernel modules for the andoid kernel, aka gpl compatible? And support for ARM is good, yes, that is by the way also true for regular linux. And when it is not, its because they didnt mainline their drivers, which is a lot of work and doesnt benefit them apart from goodwill, not because of licensing. What is your argument here?
Do you think that android would have been open source if the gpl didnt force them to?
a permissive license doesnt mean it immediately gets abused. But it does mean that abuse is possible, and it does happen. I dont want to live in a world where the best linux is microsoft© linux™ which has ads and their own packages, which are for some reason, incompatible with free linuxes because of extra features in microlinux©®™