Post by @davidgerard@circumstances.run

Linux kernel goes full AI slop code, hides chatbot commits

‘The kernel project only wants serious developers. That includes having access to enough resources to function in this world’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ARF2KcDgc&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA&index=1&pp=iAQBsAgC - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20261014-linux-kernel-goes-full-ai-slop-code-hides-chatbot-commits - podcast

time: 13 min 43 sec

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/14/linux-kernel-goes-full-ai-slop-code-hides-chatbot-commits/ - blog post

Linus Torvalds greets his friends at Nvidia, 2012

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zedaardv

@zedaardv@mastodon.world last mo.

@davidgerard
Torvalds is a git. He named git git because he's a git.

Once a git, always a git i guess.

Gits are going to git.
There is no gitting around that.

Jaime Herazo

@jherazob@mastodon.ie last mo.

@davidgerard
Been sharing it and already in two places been hearing that this is "blown out of proportion"

David Gerard

@davidgerard@circumstances.run last mo.

@jherazob or claiming "he was quoted out of context" or "he didn't say that" when he fuckin sources are linked

Rycochet

@Rycochet@furs.social last mo.

@davidgerard Can we rename it Ainux then? It'll still be a lasting tribute to its founder and leader, Anus Torvald who vanished up his own slopchute sometime in the past decade.

Fouad

@Fou_ad@mastodon.world last mo.

@davidgerard

Is it not feasible to fork the kernel and divert from slop? Or is Linus the only one that can do some of the required tasks?

Asking as a non programmer who's been using Linux for a couple of decades now.

David Gerard

@davidgerard@circumstances.run last mo.

@Fou_ad see blog post. no, a fork requires considerable infra to maintain the fork.

eickot

@eickot@mastodon.social last mo.

@davidgerard I remember there was a live-cd distro called knopix, and made me thing... Maybe we should stop calling linux linux, and start calling it sloppix.

joriki :cascadia:

@joriki@infosec.exchange last mo.

@davidgerard

on my bingo card: a fork that sticks or (same effect) Torvalds forced out

Hoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding prep!!!

@lina@vt.social last mo.

@joriki @davidgerard A fork that sticks would need a major corporation behind it, and all the major corporations are all in on the AI kool-aid.

It didn't happen before AI when there was still plenty of reason to do it due to chronic community issues and a looming sustainability crisis, and it won't happen now. Nor Linus being forced out. He's made sure to surround himself with people who are either entirely on his side, have roughly the same values as him, or have no drive nor desire to stand up to him.

Major corps already maintain forks internally and some might choose to hard fork for other reasons, but there is no chance of one of them signing up to create or back a new community project around such a fork.

bamfingle

@bamfingle@cyberplace.social last mo.

@davidgerard "Linux has fallen."

KiwiTB

@KiwiTB@mastodon.social last mo.

@davidgerard this is why so many are paying attention to RedoxOS https://redox-os.org/ 'No AI' policy, a modern kernel, and Rust based.

Redox - Your Next(Gen) OS - Redox - Your Next(Gen) OSMatrix (protocol) logoMatrix (protocol) logo

The Redox official website

Tired Goth Girl 🔞 :boost_ok:

@tiredgothgirl@girlcock.club last mo.

@davidgerard We are officially in the danger zone. Large swaths of vital internet infrastructure run on the Linux Kernel, and up until now it seemed to be well understood by maintainers that we were all one bad commit away from the end of Fight Club happening for real. Not anymore, now they get to play Russian roulette with the global supply chain with no one to tell them no.

Oberst Enzian

@oberstenzian@mastodon.social last mo.

@davidgerard So I guess that means either BSD or I use older versions of some OS that I don’t ever update under any circumstances. I’m kinda doing the latter right now on everything except my phone. I think I’m going to try out the former and keep a “conventional” computer on a locked down internal LAN and disable all software updating capabilities so that I can at least still use my DAW and non linear video editing software.

I’m regretting the digitization of things now.

mathew

@mathew@universeodon.com last mo.

@davidgerard

Fake O'Reilly book cover: "Linux Kernel Development - Your introduction (A guide for human contributors)", with art depicting Linus giving the reader the finger.

deadnettlez

@deadnettlez@cyberpunk.lol last mo.

@davidgerard i smell a costume for this years sloptober celebrations

bene gesserit preistess malam mia sidihun

开源工具观察

@opentoolnotes@mastodon.social last mo.

@davidgerard [开源工具观察]
Kernel uses AI-generated code to hide chatbot commits. Video/podcast mentions this, but no official verification exists. Check official logs to confirm.

endrift 🏳️‍⚧️

@endrift@social.treehouse.systems last mo.

@davidgerard This is a big fuck you to novice devs and new contributors. Ask me how I know. This will lead to developer attrition, mark my words.

Hoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding prep!!!

@lina@vt.social last mo.

@endrift @davidgerard I'm starting to wonder if, like, a small team who knows what they're doing LLM-coding (not vibe coding) a viable bootstrap Rust kernel is what the world needs to obsolete Linux. With a goal of dropping LLM use entirely, somehow, as the community grows.

I despise LLMs but I despise the state of things around the Linux community even more. Before LLMs I used to think the only way this would happen is if one or more companies massively invest in it... which doesn't seem to be happening. I'd be willing to hold my nose on the LLMs if it means the Linux mess has a way out...

Probably wouldn't work because LLMs are too addictive for that kind of plan to work out but... sigh, I'm just so tired of everything.

endrift 🏳️‍⚧️

@endrift@social.treehouse.systems last mo.

@lina @davidgerard I've said it before but I don't want another POSIX-first monolithic kernel. If they're gonna make contributing to Linux even harder, now's the time for a new microkernel with APIs that learn from POSIX's failings

Hoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding prep!!!

@lina@vt.social last mo.

@endrift @davidgerard Needs a POSIX compat layer though. For better or worse nobody can replace Linux without being compatible with Linux. You need the momentum of making Linux stuff work.

This is why I never really jumped into the Redox OS bandwagon. Without a solid Linux compat story, it'll never reach critical interest/mass...

endrift 🏳️‍⚧️

@endrift@social.treehouse.systems last mo.

@lina @davidgerard you're not wrong. I don't know much about Redox, but even Windows has a good chunk of a POSIX compat layer

Hoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding prep!!!

@lina@vt.social last mo.

@endrift @davidgerard Redox has POSIX but it needs to go beyond that, otherwise any of the million POSIX kernels would have a chance at replacing Linux.

IMO to succeed a project needs at the bare minimum /sys and /proc compatible with Linux (whether as layers or not), Linux syscall facility compat (beyond POSIX), and ideally a direct binary compat layer (like WSL1), not just source level basic POSIX. Or at least a *plan* / *intent* for these things, even if it doesn't aim for 100% compat.

In a microkernel world this doesn't need to live in the core kernel (beyond some syscall forwarding code/tricks, even Linux has that these days for emulators like wine). It does somewhat bias the core kernel/services to being designed to be compatible with the Linux way, but that can be done judiciously.

LisPi

@lispi314@udongein.xyz last mo.

@lina @endrift @davidgerard Given how a lot of drivers hook into sysfs, that feels a bit much to ask.

Hoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding prep!!!

@lina@vt.social last mo.

@lispi314 @davidgerard @endrift It doesn't need to support every bespoke driver interface ever, it needs to support *subsystem* interfaces like battery/power supply, USB, SATA, PCI, etc. So things like device enumeration, user space drivers, battery widgets, backlight controls, block device info, networking config, etc. work.

Anything you *don't* intend to provide needs to be a conscious design decision, because that means you are signing yourself up (or someone else up) to adding support for your new OS in userspace (all of userspace), and any missed links mean jank and lost userbase. It's generally much easier and more efficient to implement a compat interface than it is to chase around everyone to support your OS (see: Proton).

At least if you want to build a desktop OS. If you just want to build a server/embedded OS, you can get away with maybe very little of this... but that means no serious dogfooding or self hosting (because people run desktops) so that's unlikely to be a good decision.

Jacob Alexander Tice

@daemonspudguy@app.wafrn.net last mo.

@davidgerard@circumstances.run

Seriously I just don't get it. I genuinely do not comprehend why people are insisting on using the chatbots when the code that comes out of them is demonstrably dogshit. I genuinely do not understand the math that is required to believe that burning everything to the fucking ground and making the software useless to anyone is a good idea, let alone the social damage it also does.

Hoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding prep!!!

@lina@vt.social last mo.

@daemonspudguy @davidgerard The bots are demonstrably useful for some things when driven by people who are experienced, when you ignore the ethics and cost trainwreck that they are.

The people in charge are too shallow to see the big picture, they only care about how shiny it is to make working on a codebase full of technical debt a bit better (despite all that technical debt being their own fault due to mismanaging the project).

I fully believe Linus was able to use an LLM productively, in a technical way. I also think the kernel outgrew his ability and suitability to lead the project a good decade ago, maybe two... mostly for non technical reasons.

And so this happens.

GhostOnTheHalfShell

@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai last mo.

@daemonspudguy @davidgerard

I can see several plausible scenarios:

1) He doesn’t touch the code anymore
2) rubs shoulders with too many impotent people
3) Libertarian brainrot has set in and he’s become tech bro adjacent. This is a variant on number two

Tor Iver Wilhelmsen

@toriver@mas.to last mo.

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @daemonspudguy @davidgerard
4) The big corporations on the board of the Linux Foundation are AI pushers and he does their bidding

GhostOnTheHalfShell

@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai last mo.

@toriver @daemonspudguy @davidgerard

That one does sound incredibly plausible.

People are angry and dismayed with Internet Archive, but I know you know Brewster is under the same situation is board directors can influence him.

Does way too much motivated reasoning from rich people invested in an AI

David Gerard

@davidgerard@circumstances.run last mo.

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @toriver @daemonspudguy Brewster is also a coiner and nobody forced him to do that, so I wouldn't assume anyone forced him to do anything else

GhostOnTheHalfShell

@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai last mo.

@davidgerard

I’ve seen him in the field so to speak, so I have views.

There is the peer ‘pressure’ of looking relevant*

* I don’t think I’m remembering the precise term. There is explicit peer pressure where it’s cohesive and then there’s a kind of aspirational peer pressure where you want to adopt whatever appears to confer popularity. It’s a byproduct of reading the psychological research paper that the Oklahoma essay scandal pivoted around. Very interesting study.