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mesa @lemmy.world

3w ago

Ubuntu Will Replace GNU Core Utilities With Rust

tube.archworks.co

Ubuntu Will Replace GNU Core Utilities With Rust

62 comments

I can finally stop calling it GNU/Linux.
- Rust/linux^Rust
  
  Lust
  
  Oh good God, Linux is finally old enough to start rusting?! And on BOTH ENDS?
  vigorously shakes can of WD-40

That's extremely unexpected.
- The GNU utils weren't written by Canonical so they were doomed from the start.
  
  Not to worry, they'll ship 'em via snap.
- Why?
  
  Because why? I can expect a very niche distro like Cachy do it but not a big project with a serious market share.

Wait is this their way to break compatibility with old binaries so that you're forced to use snap?
- They're steadily climbing the test suit:
- The uutils should be compatible so I don't think so
- Check out our new Coreutils! (Snap required)
  Seriously though I'm just imagining that Coreutils are now going to be dependent on snap.
- I don't think so unless they make their own rust core utils.

Is there any actual benefit ?
- Code written in Rust has been shown to have significantly fewer security vulnerabilities than code written in C. Distributions like Ubuntu ship a lot of security updates, so by switching to Rust-based utils, they can reduce their workload in the long run.
  
  Ubuntu ship a lot of security updates
  After introducing the Pro I don't think so.
  
  But looking at the security vulnerability records of gnu coreutils that wasn't really needed. There were like a handful in the last 15 years... So I don't really see a need or benefit here.
  
  There's probably some zero day exploit someone is holding onto until everything is rust and then, bam!. Yeah, that's just silly to think. Just silly.
- It's been proven faster. That's all I personally know.
  
  Nothing except for binary coding can be faster than C I think.
- Just security and hype afaik.
  
  No, it isn't just hype. The hype is justified.
  Outside of security you have some very really world benefits, like performance gains in various scenarios as well as lots more people willing to contribute and a much better type system (more maintainability).
- Well the rust project is MIT licensed, so definitely not.
  
  I thought MIT licensing was a good thing?? What am i missing??

Rust is good, rare Ubuntu W. Now stop with the forced use of snaps.
- You think this is a win, but is just another step in the enshittification.

What about licences and FOSS?
- According to the video it's MIT licence, and they discuss the risk of such a licence vs coreutils usage of the GPL
  
  This worries me indeed.

Archlinux usually is a bit more reasonable. I don’t understand the forcing. Just makes me love it (archlinux) more!

This is the Linux community's Sophie's choice.

Literally why? Not even criticizing rust but the GNU core utils are easily some of the most reliable and documented software tools ever written.
Not to mention, looks like the rust core utils are MIT and not GPL.
- Literally why?
  Because MIT?

Ubuntu continues to show that it's the absolute worst.

To bad no body really uses it (or at least they shouldn't)

62 comments