Discussion
I have a vision in my mind for what I want my next era of computing to look like, and I have been making steady progress towards it for a little while; building the necessary pieces - I'm close to a point where I can be more public about this, which is very exciting.
The Linux kernel is/was going to form a stable layer in that stack, but with recent developments in mind, I am more motivated than ever in exploring/contributing to alternatives.
Very much time for projects to stand for something.
@sarahjamielewis redox looks like one future alternative
I have many technical quibbles about recent linux kernel stuff, but I can at least configure or patch pretty much all of that out of anything I use.
I'm even somewhat sympathetic to the argument that "statistical models are tools and we shouldn't outright reject a tool" i.e. I think there might be a future where we ethically construct and use large open models for some uses.
But the explicit rejection of social of political responsibility by core maintainers cannot be overlooked.
@sarahjamielewis it's quite odd as git.kernel.org itself runs Anubis to prevent AI crawlers from taking it down.
And the Linux kernel is far from unique in that regard, the full embrace of age verification and LLMs by systemd is another example (if one I have way more quibbles about)
These attitudes are pervading the core layers of critically important projects, and we need counters.
@sarahjamielewis Then there’s not much left, except of the BSDs, which are great but also not the perfect solution for everyone.
@sarahjamielewis systemd's shark-jumping has now gone further with Poettering et al. forming a startup called Amutable, where the general idea appears to be promoting read-only-but-modifiable VMs/containers/whatever.
Read-only is often good, but adding a general-purpose -but-modifiable bit tends to add a _ton_ of complexity of everywhere [1] and is IMO a counterproductive idea [2]. Whatever the case, now everyone gets to deal with all the related features/problems they upstream into systemd.
I have been pretty ok with systemd's original scope viz. as an init system, but at this point I'd just like to throw all of it out.
[1] The systemd approach appears to be largely following the pattern set by Android's APEX thing which added a ton of complexity on top of the already rather extreme complexity of AOSP.
[2] Unless you do it cheap&cheerful like the OpenWRT packages-overlay thing, which is fine if not particularly conducive to security.
Serious question, what about the Linux kernel *recently* has you changing your mind? Is it just AI/LLM policy? Or something else?
Recently: I think the inclusion of a dependence on Rust was premature, and yes not taking a strong stance against AI/LLM is I think a mistake but neither of those is a strong enough reason by themselves or even together.
The development that concerns me more is the explicit rejection of social of political responsibility by core maintainers.
To put it another way: a project like the Linux Kernel needs a strong vision, and I don't think they have one anymore.
@sarahjamielewis @danmcd This is what got under my skin.
The rejection of justice as an acceptable motivator for action is an absolute evil.
not just strong vision. a clear understanding that technology is inherently societal and political, and that considering misuse and collateral damage of technical changes is a must.
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