You are missing the gnu, if you’re calling it an OS.
Pointing at my “I need context” sign above my “I need context” hat while wearing my “I need context” shirt
Torvalds said it’s better to find a controlled way of dealing with AI contributions than trying to fight it.
Apparently that’s considered scandalous (by people only reading headlines).
There are other questions around AI (like what the economy of it will actually look like in the end), but “is it useful” is no longer one of those questions. Anybody who doubts that clearly hasn’t actually used it.
Yes, it can also be a somewhat painful tool, both for maintainer workloads and just from a “it keeps finding embarrassing bugs” standpoint.
But the solution is not to put your head in the sand and sing “La La La, I can’t hear you” at the top of your voice like some people seem to do.
The solution is to make sure those LLM tools help maintainers instead of just causing them pain. There’s no question on that side.
We’re not forcing anybody to use it, but I will very loudly ignore people who try to argue against other people from using it.
And no, AI isn’t perfect. But Christ, anybody who points to the problems at AI had better be looking in the mirror and pointing at themselves at the same time.
Because it’s not like natural intelligence is always all that great either.
Because it should be scandalous. Give one inch to the corpos, they will take a mile. Give them “rational adaptation”, they will demand a fully vibe-coded kernel.
On a systemic level, yes. On an individual “I have a crazy big software project to lead”, no.
Analogy, a responsible parent makes their kids wear a helmet. Even though car-centric infrastructure is the real problem. The bicycle itself is not dangerous. The car is.
So, on a systemic level we should fix the root cause. We should further regulate cars and make the infrastructure less car-centric. On an individual level a kid should still wear a helmet.
Featured in this show: The kid: the kernel The parent: Torvalds The helmet: Guidance and regulations how to deal with AI The car: AI
Real big brain centrist energy here.
Systems are made up by individuals. Individuals bending over to AI, especially big name projects like Linux, will just legitimize it. Get ready for a few extra years of AI slop!
Need linux pugjesus!
I have spent the last 24 hours trying to install Windows because it decided to delete its bootloader during an update. Somehow it keeps failing in many different ways. Never had such a big headache with Linux. But sure, it’s not user friendly.
Get ready for the same issues appearing on Linux too!
Never had them. Have been using Linux for 10 years. I did have a problem where Snapper decided to delete GRUB whenever I removed a snapshot, which was extremely annoying, but at least I could just boot a live image and run grub-install to fix it.
Damn, things are heating up. This one is definitely worth a read, and it sounds like a goodbye, considering that this attitude surely isn’t compatible with a longterm continued work relationship: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-media/[email protected]/
Though I do think that it’s worth remembering that this discussion is about code analysis tools, not code generation tools. The choices don’t look particular great, considering that malicious actors won’t have any qualms about using AI tools to discover exploits.
This is actually eye-opening. One problem I have is: the sponsors of LF basically own Linux and control it? Linus doesn’t have any of his own personal opinions on top of that?
If that’s really true, then what is even the point of having a ‘Linux Foundation’? Because I’m like 99% sure Linux as a whole won’t ever have a lack of sponsors.
If not corruption, why corruption-shaped?
Probably a bit of both, Torvalds is clearly no Stallman, in good and bad ways. People have a way to justify things to themselves that happen to benefit them … Linux would be a very different project if it didn’t have that US tech corp money.
Organizations like the LF are also useful for coordinating the interests of the various stakeholders, regardless of what one thinks of whether these interests are worthwhile.
Everything alright at home?
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