The Rust vs C battle raging in Linux circles has left even Linus Torvalds scratching his head. “I am undecided why Rust has been such a contentious space,” the Linux creator mused at this week’s Open Supply Summit, likening the fervor to historic textual content editor wars. “It jogs my memory of once I was younger and folks have been arguing about vi versus Emacs.”
The spat over integrating Rust into Linux has been brewing since 2022, with critics slamming it as an “insult” to many years of kernel work. One maintainer lately give up, fed up with the “nontechnical nonsense.” Torvalds struck a surprisingly diplomatic tone. He praised how Rust has “livened up discussions” whereas admitting some arguments get “nasty.” “C is, ultimately, a quite simple language,” Torvalds stated, explaining its enchantment and pitfalls. “As a result of it is easy it is also very simple to make errors. And Rust shouldn’t be.” Torvalds stays upbeat about Rust’s future in Linux, nonetheless. “Even when it have been to grow to be a failure — and I do not suppose it can — that is the way you be taught,” he stated.
