Torvalds Capitulated on Rust and Slop, Now He's Paying the Price
Linus Torvalds' employer, the so-called 'Linux' Foundation, is only 3% (or even less!) devoted to Linux (which it is 'merely' named after). This is a critical, highly crucial point that many people ignore or conveniently overlook, albeit only at their own peril. Never be easily fooled by the name. The so-called 'Linux' Foundation is run by people who don't even use Linux; they reject it but gleefully exploit the brand, "Linux". They suck the life out of it. The valuable brand gets diluted to benefit openwashing interests/stakes.
The reason Linux has Rust in it is persistent lobbying by GAFAM, which is very well documented (they set up lobby/pressure groups to say this was vital for security). Now there are tons of Linux developers who cannot read more and more (a growing proportion) of the code in Linux. It's a way to repel senior Linux hackers. How does that benefit security? Bugs are shallow when many eyes watch the code, but what if the lion's share of eyes cannot comprehend this code? Much can be said about Rust being slow and unsuited for kernel work, more so knowing the language's limited hardware (architecture) support and questions about long-term viability. C has been around for many decades, Rust is only about a decade old and it has severe leadership problems (some spilled out to the public domain), even mass resignations as recently as years ago. Is the project stable enough to build upon? Even the most widely used kernel? If not, this can be lethal.
Torvalds is belatedly realising that allowing slop to "participate" (bots in "agents" clothing) is a total disaster. There is a lot of coverage about his rants this week (ironically a lot of this coverage is LLM slop writing about his complaint regarding slop) and for those who wonder why the Linux Foundation allowed this to happen, follow the money and watch what the Linux Foundation has just done in Minneapolis with GAFAM and its slop "market leaders". It is truly appalling, they are pushing Microsoft and slop for grifters and scammers. They're not even interested in security, they are salespeople for back doors.
For Torvalds, it would probably be a good idea to defer to Daniel Stenberg's earlier comments on the tsunami / DDoS of LLM slop and his more recent words of caution against Anthropic's marketing stunts regarding Mythoslop. An associate points out that a lot of recent Daily Links cover that aspect too. The so-called 'Linux' Foundation is being paid if not 'bribed' to promote things that would definitely harm Linux, more so in the long run. The 97% of its budget that isn't devoted to Linux can be weaponised to marginalise if not actively hurt Linux.
The slop is causing fatigue. The Rust code is causing unrest. Theodore (Ted) Ts'o already has had to wrestle with some Microsoft staff who contaminated his subsystems with Rust. Of course he got attacked for doing it (for speaking out the truth about the woes); just like the time he opposed Microsoft file systems inside Linux, citing software patents-based extortion.
Neither problem (Rust and slop) is about making the kernel better, an associate opines, both are about gaining control over development by displacing or crushing the senior developers. e.g. Ted, Linus, etc. █