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Is It Time to Rewrite the Operating System in Rust?

InfoQ

234K subscribers • 65 videos on Hallway • Conference channel

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  • Recommended by 3 people: 1 on Hacker News and 2 on Lobsters.
  • Presented by Bryan Cantrill, systems software engineer
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

310K views7 years ago3 recommendations

Systems programmingProgramming languagesRustOperating systemsPerformance and optimization

Bryan Cantrill explores the limits of C, the benefits of memory safety, and whether Rust is ready for writing operating systems.

QCon San Francisco, the international software conference, returns November 17-21, 2025. Join senior software practitioners from early adopter companies as they share real-world insights and actionable advice to help you adopt the right technologies and practices. Gain exposure to innovative approaches and fresh ideas in software development and engineering, designed to inspire and challenge you. Don’t miss this chance to deepen your knowledge, sharpen your skills, and stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of technology. Register now: bit.ly/3BYzfbe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Video with transcript included: bit.ly/2Nq7RW5 Bryan Cantrill explores Rust, explains why it has captured the imagination of so many systems software engineers, and outlines where it might best fit in the deep stack of operating system software. This presentation was recorded at QCon San Francisco 2018: bit.ly/2uYyHLb For more awesome presentations on innovator and early adopter topics check InfoQ’s selection of talks from conferences worldwide bit.ly/2tm9loz #Rust #OperatingSystems #SystemProgramming #InfoQ #QConSanFrancisco

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended as a deep, engaging analysis of C's composition challenges and why Rust is a compelling fit for modern systems programming.

jstojaon Lobsters • Recommends

Is It Time to Rewrite the Operating System in Rust?
16View on Lobsters

equaluniqueon Hacker News • Recommends

On “GKE Sandbox: Independent operating system kernel to each container”

My introduction to gVisor was the talk by Emma Haruka Iwao at InfoQ NY 2018: link I learned of the talk because Brian Cantrill referenced it during his very deep dive into operating systems, C, and Rust given later at the some event: link to this video
View on Hacker News

catilacon Lobsters • Recommends

Is It Time to Rewrite the Operating System in Rust?
3View on Lobsters

oconnor663on Hacker News • Mentions

On “D as a C Replacement”

…o the caller. The tools for detecting UB are imperfect and don't work if the relevant inputs never show up in test cases. Even when veteran C coders develop the techniques and habits that let them write correct C, mistakes tend to show up at the integration points between libraries written by different people with different techniques and habits ( link to this video ).…
View on Hacker News

1MachineElfon Hacker News • Mentions

On “The Beauty of Unix Pipelines”

I only linked that because most people don't know what B is, and I suppose the difference between "innovation meant to fill the space" and "extention" wasn't so important to me. My source for the claim itself is from 14m30s of Brian Cantrill's talk "Is It Time to Rewrite the Opersting System in Rust" link to this video
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bcantrillon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Rust is not a good C replacement (2019)”

…t I described at length in a talk in 2017.3 To the matter at hand: yes, I have fallen in love with Rust.4 Yes, I think it is a good fit for system software.5 And yes, this has served as a bonding force at Oxide -- but as much (if not more!) for the values that it reflects than for it itself.6 1 link 2 link 3 link 4 link 5 link to this video 6 link…
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littlestymaaron Hacker News • Mentions

On “Rust is now overall faster than C in benchmarks”

> The reason that C programs often don’t perform as well as an equivalent rust program1 is that it’s so incredibly hard to do anything at all in C (especially something reliable) that one can usually only do the simplest thing possible and this typically means simple data structures, simple algorithms and arrays Brian Cantrill talks1 about exactly this: in his C version he was using AVL trees because they are easy to implement, while his Rust version was using B-trees just because he could. And as a result, his naive first attempt in Rust outperformed his long-optimized C code. 1: link to this video
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oconnor663on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why I Use C When I Believe in Memory Safety”

Bryan Cantrill making a similar point: link to this video > I can write C that frees memory properly...that basically doesn't suffer from memory corruption...I can do that, because I'm controlling heaven and earth in my software. It makes it very hard to compose software. Because even if you and I both know how to write memory safe C, it's very hard for us to have an interface boundary where we can agree about who does what.
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