Resigning as Asahi Linux project lead

Rust in the Linux Kernel vs C-Only Culture

• Much of the discussion centers on a DMA subsystem maintainer rejecting Rust bindings as “cross-language cancer” (explicitly meaning multi-language codebases, not Rust itself).
• One side argues this was pure anti-Rust gatekeeping: the patch didn’t touch the C DMA code, and the maintainer allegedly blocked any Rust near “their” subsystem, moving goalposts when objections were answered.
• The opposing view: maintainers are rightly terrified of long‑term maintenance for code in languages they don’t use, and of new abstractions that encode semantics more rigidly; for them, multi-language core code is an unacceptable burden.
• Several posts stress that Rust-for-Linux developers did promise to maintain their code, but skeptics note that promises aren’t enforceable and recent Rust maintainers resigning reinforces fears of abandonment.

Social Media, “Hall of Shame”, and Professionalism

• A key flashpoint was talk of using social media “shaming” and even a private “hall of shame” for difficult kernel maintainers.
• Critics see this as brigading and weaponizing followers against volunteers; they argue that no serious project can tolerate that, regardless of technical merit.
• Defenders say this was a last resort after months/years of stonewalling and lack of leadership, and that harsh public emails from long‑time kernel figures are given a pass while newcomers are punished.
• There is broad agreement that social-media escalation made things worse and hardened positions.

Leadership, Governance, and Rust’s Future

• Many comments fault top leadership for approving Rust in principle but not intervening when subsystem maintainers openly vowed to “do everything in [their] power” to block it.
• Others counter that Linux is not a company; the only real power is “what gets merged”, and top-down fiat on language policy would damage trust with long‑term maintainers.
• Some argue the only clean way forward is a Rust-heavy fork (or a separate OS like Redox) rather than forcing Rust deep into an aging C codebase.

Asahi Linux, Apple Hardware, and Upstreaming Pain

• There’s praise for the technical achievement: running Linux (and a Rust GPU driver) on undocumented Apple Silicon is seen as remarkable.
• But some question the strategy: choosing a hostile/closed platform and a second kernel language stacked the odds against success upstream.
• Upstreaming is described as essential to avoid permanent rebasing hell, yet kernel and Mesa policies (e.g., tying GPU userspace enablement to upstream kernel support) made Asahi’s life “downstream” much harder.

Entitled Users, Burnout, and Funding

• Many empathize with burnout from “entitled users” demanding Thunderbolt, USB‑C displays, battery life parity, etc., on a volunteer project.
• Others say those are legitimate “not usable for me” statements, not abuse, and that expectations should have been managed more clearly (“experimental, not daily-driver”).
• There’s broad recognition that open source maintainers are routinely worn down by rude users, unpaid maintenance labor, and stalled merges, and that sustainable funding and boundary-setting are still largely unsolved problems.

Meta: HN, Harassment, and Identity Drama

• The Asahi site’s banner accusing Hacker News of hosting abusive threads sparked its own debate: some agree moderation is too light on bigotry; others call the accusation exaggerated.
• Separate, contentious subthreads dig into allegations of sockpuppetry and Vtuber alter egos, with some seeing this as irrelevant personal drama, others as further reason not to take certain complaints about “secret cliques” seriously.