Now imagine the new COSMIC desktop environment in Rust on Redox, that would be great
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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Probably inevitable considering Jeremy Soller is the lead dev on Redox while also currently contributing to COSMIC.
To be honest, I'm surprised COSMIC isn't the default, but it's likely due to display server stuff that isn't part of Redox (Wayland, etc.).
This is already in progress. COSMIC applications are compatible with Redox OS.
I don't understand the obsession with rust.
From my personal experience I can tell you 2 reasons. The first is that this is the first general purpose language that can be used for all projects. You can use it on the web browser with web assembly, it is good for backend and it also is low level enough to use it for OS development and embedded. Other languages are good only for some thing and really bad for others. The second reason is that it is designed around catching errors at compile time. The error handling and strict typing forces the developer to handle errors. I have to spend more time creating the program but considerably less time finding and fixing bugs.
That sounds pretty great. I get sick of having to switch gears for every layer. As a hobbyist it is tough to remember five or six languages well enough when only coding something a few times a year.
Since I do embedded, scripting, web front and back end this is sure tempting.
I have been hesitant to try to learn yet another language (this would make...ummm.. idk I lost count ages ago). But with all the hype I may break down and give it a whirl.
Sounds like python may be a better fit if its supported on the embedded devices you use as it will cover scripting and backend too. Rust has quite a learning curve and can be rather verbose.
I do use python quite a bit for scripting and backend, app, and I've used MicroPython a little bit, preferring C, C++ for embedded. It's pretty great for what I need.
I might mess around with Rust out of curiosity anyway, though the downsides you mention make it less compelling for me, personally. I'm not a big fan of verbose languages (e.g., Java, though I have used it for some apps).
Messing around with rust is certainly worth it, as it can change the way you think in a way that improves code in whatever language you write.
If you are curious definitely do check it out! It's a really cool language to learn and you'll start to enjoy the fight the compiler puts up.
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And the fucking MIT License
Yes, as much as I appreciate memory safety and rust in particular. I'm very worried by this pivot away from copyleft and GPL. Specially the rewriting in rust phenomenon of fundamental stuff. It's safer, yes, but they're all pretty much non GPL and it seems very risky to me. Make no mistake, the industry is riding this wave to move away from copyleft to permissive licenses.
I wish that people understood the importance of FSF and GNU
Well that is rather insidious. Crap. They probably understand the reasons for the GPL very well. Doesn't mean they support them.
I'm sure there's some community pull as well, because most of the rust ecosystem seems to be converged on MIT. But what despairs me is the wilful sidelining of GPL and everything GNU by some open source community members/corporate people. So yeah, you're probably right
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Rust devs be like:
Shame that we don't have a proper copyleft license tho? GPL, as nice as the intentions are, is a license so convoluted that I'm not sure whether it'd hold up in court in my country.
It’s a system programming language that isn’t C or C++.
Edit to add: How did Go get on that page? That’s a stretch.
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The idea is less bugs due to stricter rules when developing and compiling. You can understand that.
Then, also more access to build tools and high level programming without changing languages.
If you have no need for that, then just know others do and it's a great thing.
I’ve used it in a VM just to mess around. I’d like to install it on an old ThinkPad and try to compile some applications.
How long would it take to compile their Rust microkernel alone compared to a similar one done in C? There are many posts around the web complaining about Rust's long compile times, though thankfully rarely as slow as C++
Oh my god they rewrote Linux in Rust. Amazing.
Kinda. Redox uses a microkernel architecture and tries to keep only the most important functionality in ring 0 while they push everything else in userspace. It's great.
So they actually rewrote The Hurd in Rust.
Many lessons were learned from the Hurd that has impacted ALL microkernel kernel and userspace designs, but it is ancient by today's standards.
Its more accurate to say they were "rewriting" MINIX, but I don't like the word "rewriting" as all of these systems are unique in their own way.
Having some hardware mentioned on the site that is supported and ready for use could be helpful if someone wants to try it (say raspberry pi), There are probably people who are worried to will make their computer explode.
I wouldn't say it's inappropriate as there is more and more rust making it into the native kernel. I'll definitely throw this on my Ventoy usb and see if I can get it to boot
I've heard about it due to the Ion shell which I tried out once
Ion's been my go to local scripting language for a while
Shame they don't have a list of the packages they offer.
Slap a Firefox on top (and time travel to when ff is all rusted) and we'll be coming for ChromeOS. But will windows be completely rusted first? 🙃
I think the main reason Firefox isn't on there is because redox os doesn't use Wayland and x11. Porting firefox would be a massive effort unfortunately.
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