Good news for whom? The mental safe space of old time kernel developers? Or good new for users who will continue to have to deal with kernel panics and other memory issues.
I have not seen many of those in my close to 32 years of involvement with Linux. In the beginning of the project they did occur 'every now and then' but once Linux got past v1.2 or thereabouts they're about as rare as hen's teeth. If Rust ever becomes widespread enough for kernel developers to pick it up with ease it will be a welcome addition but until such a time I prefer for the project to remain C-focused so as not to close out a large fraction of the potential developer base. If that means that some 'competing' kernel gets written in Rust and takes over from Linux that'd be fine by me as well, may the best [1] kernel win.
Suggesting making a new kernel is just total FUD. This is a multi decade project. It's like saying to a person who want some legislation in their country to change "why not make your own country, may the best country win". It's just so far removed from reality I'm very surprised I have seen this argument more then once.
Linux started as a hobby project of a single student and just a few years later it was already possible to build a full-blown UNIX desktop system with Linux as kernel.
Why should that not be possible to replicate today? Especially with modern development tooling and a big and motivated language community?
What is missing is the user base! When Linus started his project, many people knew Unix in their professional life and were disappointed with what the market (M$) was proposing for the personal computer world.
Today, no such multitude is waiting for the next Linux.
Linux may not be perfect, but it's definitely good enough.
That doesn't even begin to touch on the problem that linux came at just the right time.
Replacing any substantial parts of the Linux project with Rust also would be multi-decade effort, most likely more effort than forking off a separate evolutionary branch (which is probably the most realistic option). Such forks happened all the time in the history of UNIX.
No one wants to replace substantial parts of the linux project with Rust. This is a straw man, and the same bad faith argument the set in their ways kernel greybeards are making. People just want to be able to write green field drivers in Rust.
As long as they are the majority of the kernel developers, their wish is what matters the most.
This problem is not expected to be solved by current maintainers. They're just asked to make room for the next generation. "It should hurt you like it hurt me" is not an acceptable response.
> Does the proverbial rust programmer who doesn't know C even exist?
I have seen enough Python or JS programmers learning Rust without having any working knowledge about C. Of course Rust is not an easy language to learn for them, as they have to deal with a concept of explicit memory and lifetime that have no equivalent in Python or JS, but otherwise I didn't see any complication specific to Rust.