I’m effectively locked into Slackware for the next decade or so with my current hardware, but I’ve started exploring a move to BSD (NetBSD, NomadBSD, or FreeBSD) because of Rust being introduced into the Linux kernel.
I get the goal of adding Rust to the kernel, but the compiler monoculture around Rust is my biggest concern. I might not end up switching to BSD, but after the X11/Wayland nightmare, I’m not feeling confident about where things are headed.
I think people should give Ken Thompson’s 1984 Research Paper “Reflections on Trusting Trust” it’s a fascinating paper on the possible security flaw of Compilers
Fingers crossed it doesn’t turn into a repeat of that mess. For now, I’m testing a FreeBSD desktop fork in a VM called NomadBSD, and I’ll come back with my impressions once I’ve spent more time with it.