Linus Torvalds to Rewrite the Linux Kernel in PHP
Linus Torvalds to Rewrite the Linux Kernel in PHP
Linus Torvalds reveals plans to rewrite the Linux kernel using the web dev langue: PHP. The news has cause controversy among the tech community
Finally i'm gonna be able to contribute!
basic or nothing
Good thing that this isn't actually possible...
Don't tempt fate. There are already two kernels written in javascript
How? You'd need to compile it down to machine code somehow, for the processor to have any clue how to run it. And you'd need some custom library with custom compile instructions, to be able to control memory allocations, memory addresses etc..
I did a quick search and found two operating systems written in JS, both of which cop out when it comes to the kernel. Did you maybe mix it up with those?
Theoretically if you found a way to compile PHP, you probably could though, right?
I mean, I'm a bit out of my water there, both in terms of the featureset of PHP and what's actually needed for a kernel, but I'm still gonna go with no.
For one, PHP uses reference counting + garbage collection for memory management. That's normally done by the language runtime, which you won't have when running baremetal.
Maybe you could implement a kernel, which does as few allocations as possible (generally a good idea for a kernel, but no idea, if it's possible with PHP), and then basically just let it memory leak until everything crashes.
Then again, the kernel is responsible for making processes crash when they have a memory leak. Presumably, our PHP kernel would just start overwriting data from running processes and eventually overwrite itself in memory(?). Either way, it would be horrendous.Maybe you could also try to implement some basic reference counting into your own PHP code, so that your own code keeps track of how often you've used an object in your own code. Certainly doesn't sound like fun, though.
Well, and secondly, I imagine, you'd also still need an extension of the language, to be able to address actual memory locations and do various operations with them.
I know from Rust, that they've got specific functions in the stdlib for that, see for example: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/ptr/index.html#functions
Presumably, PHP does not have such functions, because its users aren't normally concerned with that.
I did use a crypto mining OS that was Linux but with lots of scripts that were written in… PHP! I never thought I’d see it.
If we are rewriting it, we should use holyc to make it the way god intended.
Ring 0 all the way baybee!!
As a PHP developer, I'm in full support and look forward to contributing to what will be a vastly simpler and easier to use Linux kernel.
And the Community rejoices at the perspective of your valuable contributions!
Update: thank you for pointing out to me which community this was posted on.
I'm going to leave this post up as a cautionary tale for people like me who don't pay enough attention!
But Linux is cool cuz it's so fast and it doesn't break.
Long as I've been using it anyway.
So now linux is going to be much slower, going to break and be more susceptible to security breaches?
I'm not a programmer, is the upside supposed to be that with so many more programmers able to work on the kernel, those issues will be able to be fixed by the extra programmers?
It's not like there's anything wrong with Linux right now.
Don't forget to look in which community this was posted
Pppffbbbthhh haha thanks.
Guess I'll just sit in this, I guess.
I prefer Ruby myself 🥰
Joking, of course. Ruby would be slow as hell.
Write the kernel in Arnold C
i mean if you want chaos, program in whitespace
Anything is better than C, right? Even 🤮 PHP.
PHP and C are both fine languages, they have their strengths and their weaknesses. They're tools and if you feel the need to shit on them then you clearly need more practice using a diversity of languages.
Ah yes, the almighty counter "everything is relative". "Malbolge is a fine language with its strengths and weaknesses. It has perfectly valid usecases and can never be shit on, ever."
Jokes on them PHP is itself written in C