When did System76 start using Rust?

Many devs dream of one day writing their own operating system. Ideally in their favorite language: Rust. For many of us, this dream remains just that: a dream.

Jeremy Soller from System76, however, didn't just contribute kernel code for Pop!_OS, but also started his own operating system, RedoxOS, which is completely written in Rust. One might get the impression that he likes to tinker with low-level code!

In this episode of Rust in Production, Jeremy talks about his journey. From getting hired as a kernel developer at Denver-based company System76 after looking at the job ad for 1 month and finally applying, to being the maintainer of not one but two operating systems, additional system tools, and the Rust-based Cosmic desktop. We'll talk about why it's hard to write correct C code even for exceptional developers like Jeremy and why Rust is so great for refactoring and sharing code across different levels of abstraction.

From hardware all the way up to the UI, System76 pushes hard for vertical integration. The company has a strong following amongst Linux enthusiasts and is a big advocate for Rust. They use it across the stack for most (all?) of their major projects. Instead of GNOME or KDE, the Denver-based company even built their own user interface in Rust, called COSMIC.

Jeremy is a hardware and kernel hacker who has an intricate understanding of low-level computing. With Redox OS, an operating system fully written in Rust, he was one of the first developers who pushed the boundaries of what was possible with the still young language. The first release of Redox was in April 2015 when Rust hadn't even reached 1.0. By all means, Jeremy is a pioneer in the Rust community, an expert in low-level programming, and an advocate for robust, reliable systems programming.

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"Rust in Production" is a podcast by corrode, a company that helps teams adopt Rust. We offer training, consulting, and development services to help you succeed with Rust. If you want to learn more about how we can help you, please get in touch.