The Michelin 3-star restaurant of computer code
Published on 2025-01-21
I don't really know anything about fine dining, to be honest. But I do know this:
- High-end restaurants have a tradition of viciously abusive management
- Supposedly, the food is really good—best food you'll ever eat; but
- You, dear working-class reader of njms.ca, will never get to try it.
A few months back I wanted to write this article about Asahi Lina's complaints trying to incorporate Rust code into the Linux kernel—something you're ostensibly able to do, but apparently very much in spite of the old-school contributors who haven't been making it easy.
Asahi Lina on her struggle working with C developers on the Linux kernel
Thing is, I don't know all that much about the Linux kernel, or the people who work on it individually. But I do know this:
- The Linux kernel has a tradition of viciously abusive leadership
- Supposedly, the code is really good—the most beautiful code you'll ever read; but
- You, dear feckless software developer, will never understand.
I think what was really interesting about Asahi Lina's complaint was that it pulled back the curtain and showed me the development of the Linux kernel in a way I never really imagined. Asahi Lina described the Linux kernel as something that reminds me a lot of the kind of software normal people write, i.e. something that barely works at all—more on coincidence than any grand underlying and consistent design. And honestly I sympathize with that quite a bit. Writing software is genuinely hard no matter what level you're at. Yes, we absolutely should hold projects like the Linux kernel to a high standard, but I'm not going to pretend we live in a world where all or even most software is well designed.
The thing is, people do hold the Linux kernel in high regard. It's widely looked up to as a sort of heroic project, and the people who build it are often seen as "heroes" of software engineering. The GNU project is similar in this regard. I think a lot of people would be surprised if they got their hands dirty and saw all the things Asahi Lina saw first hand.
Ultimately, to most of us, the Linux kernel is just a story we tell ourselves and others. Ostensibly it is this real thing that makes my and many other people's computers run, but very few people can be said to really "know" Linux in the way I'd expect a kernel developer to. I mean, I'm a web developer. I write PHP, not C. I took a course in operating system design but I'm not going to pretend I know how the Linux kernel, or really any operating system kernel works. That stuff is a black box to me.
To me and many others, The real value of the Linux kernel and the GNU project has more to do with their role in the community, the goals they aim to achieve, the vision of the future they offer us in a time of corporate enclosure of the open source commons. You know, their story. It could have been any kernel. It could have even been the NT Kernel. But none of the alternatives have a story as powerful, as compelling as that of the Linux kernel.
So why do all our stories revolve around abusive men?
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