Engineering Reads — 2026-04-19#

The Big Idea#

Software engineering is inherently political, whether you are building capability-based microkernels, managing toxic open-source communities, or resisting corporate exploitation through unionization. True technical excellence cannot exist in a moral vacuum; the legal, social, and labor structures behind the code determine its ultimate value to society.

Deep Reads#

Porting Helios to aarch64 for my FOSDEM talk, part one · Drew DeVault · Source The author explains the process of porting the Helios microkernel, written in the Hare language, to aarch64 in order to present a slidedeck directly from a Raspberry Pi 4. The initial focus is on the bootloader, leveraging an EFI stub and device trees instead of SoC-specific complexities. A major challenge discussed is the EL2 to EL1 exception level transition on real hardware, which differed from the QEMU emulator defaults. Systems developers working on bare-metal ARM boot sequences should read this to understand practical EFI memory mapping and MMU configuration.

When to comment that code · Drew DeVault · Source This post argues for low comment density by emphasizing that function signatures, return types, and strategic naming should carry the burden of explanation. The author divides comments into distinct categories—documentation for API users, implementation details for maintainers, and actionable TODO/XXX markers. A key insight is that implementation comments should assume the reader has access to the relevant specification, massively reducing redundancy. Developers looking to improve code clarity without relying on verbose explanations will find this minimalist philosophy valuable.

Writing Helios drivers in the Mercury driver environment · Drew DeVault · Source This article dives into the Mercury driver environment for the Ares OS, where drivers run as isolated userspace ELF executables. The mechanism relies on a capability-based design where access to system resources, like I/O ports and IRQs, is explicitly declared in a manifest and checked by the runtime. The author demonstrates how domain-specific protocol definitions are parsed by ipcgen to generate client and server code, allowing seamless inter-process communication. Kernel and systems engineers should read this to see how capability-based security fundamentally isolates driver faults compared to monolithic designs.

The Free Software Foundation is dying · Drew DeVault · Source The author claims the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is failing its core missions of disseminating philosophy, promoting copyleft, and overseeing the movement’s health. The article highlights that the FSF’s messaging has become tone-deaf and exclusionary, failing to reach the broader open-source community that now dominates the ecosystem. Key reforms proposed include replacing leadership, decoupling from the GNU project, and developing more accessible copyleft licenses. FOSS contributors and leaders should read this for a critical assessment of how legacy institutions must adapt or perish.

rc: a new shell for Unix · Drew DeVault · Source This piece introduces a new shell heavily inspired by Plan 9’s rc, written in Hare, that aims to fix the quoting nightmare endemic to POSIX shells. The core technical innovation is recognizing two fundamental primitives—strings and lists of strings—eliminating the need to quote variables simply to prevent word splitting. The shell includes modern conveniences like loops, functions with named parameters, and an interactive mode powered by madeline. Unix power users and developers frustrated by bash scripting quirks should explore this as a cleaner, more robust alternative.

Who should lead us? · Drew DeVault · Source The author challenges the biases inherent in the hacker community’s perception of leadership, contrasting the typical middle-aged white male executive with diverse maintainers like Alyssa Rosenzweig. The core argument is that marginalized individuals often face severe discrimination despite being eminently qualified and foundational to our software ecosystems. The post dismantles the myth that free software is “apolitical,” asserting that treating people with respect and fostering diverse teams is essential for better engineering outcomes. Engineering leaders must read this to confront their own unconscious biases and actively support inclusive environments.

Burnout · Drew DeVault · Source This vulnerable post chronicles the author’s descent into severe burnout triggered by overlapping personal crises, community trauma, and the theft of their equipment. The narrative illustrates how a historically reliable work ethic can suddenly fail when mental and emotional reserves are entirely depleted. The author emphasizes the necessity of stepping away without guilt and delegating responsibilities to a trusted group of maintainers. Maintainers of high-profile open-source projects should read this as a stark reminder to build resilient project governance that survives individual limits.

How to go to war with your employer · Drew DeVault · Source This article reframes the employee-employer relationship, advising white-collar tech workers to recognize and leverage their inherent power and class consciousness. The author argues that because your primary value is generating profit, you have substantial agency to dictate your working conditions as long as that core objective is met. The post details strategies ranging from collective team subversion of agile frameworks to the careful, adversarial manipulation of Human Resources. Software engineers dissatisfied with corporate bureaucracy should read this for a pragmatic guide to workplace autonomy.

Throwing in the towel on mobile Linux · Drew DeVault · Source After three years of daily-driving mobile Linux, the author shares the decision to revert to Android. The primary tradeoff discussed is that while the promise of running a native Alpine Linux stack on a phone is incredible, the unreliability of core telephony (calls and SMS) makes it untenable. Despite impressive community progress, the constant regressions in basic usability outweigh the benefits of an open ecosystem. Mobile developers and Linux enthusiasts should read this for a grounded reality check on the current state of alternative mobile platforms.

Reforming the free software message · Drew DeVault · Source To address the incomprehensibility of existing FSF resources, the author announces the launch of writefreesoftware.org. This new resource aims to provide an accessible introduction to free software principles and practical advice on licensing without the FSF’s traditional antagonism towards the open-source movement. The initiative represents a pragmatic attempt to modernize advocacy and bridge the gap between strict software freedom and modern development practices. Project maintainers looking for level-headed guidance on choosing free software licenses should consult this work.

Burnout and the quiet failures of the hacker community · Drew DeVault · Source A deeply personal continuation of the author’s struggles, this piece exposes the pervasive, silent crises of sexual assault, misogyny, and trauma within hacker communities. The author recounts resigning from communities that protected abusers and highlights how the facade of “inclusion” often masks the tolerance of dangerous behavior. The central call to action is to believe victims, enforce codes of conduct without complaint, and actively remove harmful individuals from community spaces. Community organizers and tech leaders must read this to understand the urgent need for stringent, victim-centered moderation.

Social media and “parasocial media” · Drew DeVault · Source This article draws a sharp distinction between true “social media” like the fediverse and “parasocial media” like YouTube or Twitter. The core insight is that traditional platforms are optimized for unidirectional algorithmic consumption and audience building, whereas federated platforms are optimized for actual human conversations. The tradeoff is that creators seeking massive reach will find the fediverse lacking, but those seeking genuine social connections will find it superior. Developers building or migrating to decentralized platforms should read this to align their expectations with the architectural intent of the network.

Seriously, don’t sign a CLA · Drew DeVault · Source The author sharply criticizes Contributor License Agreements (CLAs) that demand copyright assignment, characterizing them as a deliberate legal mechanism for corporations to eventually close-source their products. By retaining copyright collectively among contributors, a project ensures that no single entity can re-license the work proprietarily without unanimous consent. The article advocates for the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) as an ethical alternative that establishes code provenance without stripping contributors of their rights. Open-source contributors should read this to understand how copyleft licenses combined with decentralized copyright act as a defense against corporate rug-pulls.

Alpine Linux does not make the news · Drew DeVault · Source This post celebrates Alpine Linux precisely for its lack of drama and corporate monetization controversies. The author attributes this stability to its grassroots, decentralized governance model where stakeholders maintain the distribution to ensure it works for their own use-cases. This model insulates the project from the sweeping, unpopular changes often forced by corporate entities in distributions like RHEL or Ubuntu. Systems engineers and devops professionals should read this to appreciate the immense value of “boring,” reliably maintained infrastructure.

The rc shell and its excellent handling of whitespace · Drew DeVault · Source Building on previous discussion of the rc shell, this article demonstrates how elevating argument vectors (lists) to a first-class primitive solves the infamous POSIX whitespace problem. By differentiating between strings and lists of strings, rc eliminates the need for obsessive quoting around variables and filenames. The author compares this 3,000-line shell favorably against massive modern shells like zsh and fish, proving that fixing foundational primitives yields enormous simplicity. Shell script developers and language designers should read this for a masterclass in how better data types eliminate entire classes of syntax errors.

Hello from Ares! · Drew DeVault · Source The author shares a milestone for the Ares OS: the system now supports processes, a virtual filesystem, and essential drivers for SATA, PS/2, and ext4. Porting third-party software like ed and a C library based on musl proves that the Hare language is highly capable of driving a complete, from-scratch operating system. Future ambitions are mapped out, shifting focus from core OS primitives to networking, USB, and eventually Wayland support. Systems programmers should read this as an inspiring case study of rapid OS development utilizing modern, statically typed systems languages.

AI crap · Drew DeVault · Source This piece dismantles the existential hype around Artificial General Intelligence, arguing that the real threat of AI is boring capitalism seeking to replace competent labor with cheap, generative slop. The author predicts a bleak future filled with SEO content farms, automated phishing, eliminated customer support, and massive ecological waste from GPU farms. The core insight is that AI companies deliberately foster sci-fi doomerism to secure regulatory moats, masking the immediate harm caused by predictive policing and bias. Software engineers should read this to look past the technical novelty of LLMs and confront their macroeconomic and ecological externalities.

Hyprland is a toxic community · Drew DeVault · Source The author publicly condemns the Hyprland Wayland compositor community for fostering an environment of rampant hate speech, transphobia, and bullying. The central claim is that the community’s leadership actively participates in this toxicity, masking harassment as “edgy” jokes and outright rejecting codes of conduct. The piece argues that building technically impressive free software is irrelevant if the resulting community inflicts suffering on marginalized individuals. Open-source maintainers must read this as a stark warning about the cultural rot that occurs when leadership abdicates moral responsibility.

The forbidden topics · Drew DeVault · Source This post critiques the hypocrisy of “free speech absolutists” in hacker communities who fiercely defend hate speech but aggressively censor discussions about sexism, sexual assault, and diversity. The author argues that this selective moderation enforces the status quo and protects abusers by demanding impossible legal standards of evidence for community safety actions. By refusing to believe victims and prioritizing the comfort of the accused, the community perpetuates a dangerous environment. Community leaders should read this to understand how demanding “decorum” is often weaponized to silence marginalized voices and shield predators.

Going off-script · Drew DeVault · Source The author observes how societal structures impose a default “script” for life—education, career, family, retirement—that preserves existing power structures and breeds learned helplessness. By questioning these defaults, individuals can reclaim their agency and make deliberate choices about their lifestyle, careers, and community involvement. The post suggests that encountering people who deviate from the norm causes dissonance because it challenges the unchallenged assumptions of the majority. Engineers feeling trapped in the corporate grind should read this to consciously evaluate their life choices and build solidarity with alternative paths.

On “real name” policies · Drew DeVault · Source This article navigates the tension between legal accountability in open-source contributions and the harm caused by mandatory “real name” policies. While maintainers rightfully use tools like the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) to establish copyright provenance, strictly requiring legal names discriminates against transgender individuals, victims of harassment, and marginalized groups. The author’s solution is to require a DCO sign-off but allow contributors to use whatever identity they are most comfortable with, provided it establishes a consistent, reachable persona. Project maintainers should read this to design contribution guidelines that satisfy legal liability without enabling exclusion.

Can I be on your podcast? · Drew DeVault · Source In an effort to promote the Hare programming language, the Ares OS, and the Himitsu secret manager, the author provides a compact press kit for podcast appearances. The strategy eschews paid advertising and aggressive evangelism in favor of organic, respectful community outreach. The kits clearly define Hare as a statically typed systems language with manual memory management, and Ares as a micro-kernel OS. Developer advocates and project leads can read this as a template for conducting grassroots software evangelism without being annoying.

Richard Stallman’s political discourse on sex · Drew DeVault · Source This extensive critique analyzes the consistent, decades-long pattern of Richard Stallman defending adults accused of sexual impropriety with minors. The author deconstructs Stallman’s manipulation of language—such as re-defining “children” to exclude teenagers and eroding the definition of “sexual assault”—to normalize predatory behavior and ignore fundamental power dynamics. The core thesis is that Stallman’s views are not mere awkwardness, but a rehearsed political narrative that poisons the free software movement’s culture. Open-source practitioners must read this to understand why idolizing technically brilliant founders is dangerous when they lack basic moral competence.

Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate · Drew DeVault · Source The author uses the decline of 3D-printer manufacturer Prusa to dismantle the argument that open-source hardware companies fail due to permissive licensing. The real failure mode, the author argues, was Prusa’s refusal to diversify their business model beyond selling a single, high-margin flagship printer, leaving them completely exposed to highly efficient Chinese manufacturing. By failing to capture adjacent markets like cloud slicing, print-on-demand services, and entry-level hardware, Prusa squandered their early dominance. Technical founders should read this to learn that open-sourcing your core IP requires relentless execution on the other 90% of your business strategy.

FDO’s conduct enforcement actions regarding Vaxry · Drew DeVault · Source Following up on the toxicity of the Hyprland community, the author defends freedesktop.org’s (FDO) decision to ban Hyprland’s lead developer, Vaxry. The mechanism of the ban was rooted in Vaxry’s hostile, bad-faith escalation of a private warning from FDO’s conduct team, wherein he dismissed his own hate speech and threatened to ignore future moderation. The piece explicitly rejects the notion that technical contributions grant immunity from professional conduct standards. Community managers should read this to see a textbook example of necessary boundary-setting against maintainers who attempt to import toxic culture into upstream dependencies.

Copyleft licenses are not “restrictive” · Drew DeVault · Source This philosophical deep-dive corrects the misconception that copyleft licenses are “restrictive” compared to “permissive” licenses. The author argues that both license types permit unrestricted use, but copyleft imposes an obligation of reciprocity that actively guarantees user freedoms. Drawing a parallel to constitutional rights, the piece illustrates how freedom emerges from constraints placed on power—in this case, preventing corporations from hoarding modifications. Engineers confused by licensing debates should read this to understand copyleft as a positive guarantee of rights rather than a limitation.

Writing a Unix clone in about a month · Drew DeVault · Source The author chronicles the rapid, 27-day development of “Bunnix,” a monolithic, Unix-like operating system for x86_64 written in Hare and C. The project leverages existing libraries like lwext4 for filesystems and musl for libc, allowing for rapid porting of complex userspace tools like Vim and Doom. A major technical takeaway is the stark contrast in complexity between microkernels and monolithic kernels, with the latter vastly simplifying driver architecture and scheduler implementation. Low-level programmers should read this for practical insights into the trade-offs of kernel design and the messy reality of POSIX signal handling.

So you want to compete with or replace open source · Drew DeVault · Source This post critiques movements like “Fair Source” and “post-open” that seek to modify open-source economics to exclusively monetize software for the original developers. The core insight is that open source thrives precisely because decentralized, shared ownership incentivizes cross-corporate collaboration; enforcing an “auteur” model inherently destroys this dynamic. The author argues that you cannot simultaneously demand free labor from the community while legally reserving the right to exclusive commercial exploitation. Startup founders navigating source-available licenses should read this to understand why abandoning the collaborative FOSS model fundamentally changes their market viability.

Rust for Linux revisited · Drew DeVault · Source Reflecting on the severe burnout among Rust-for-Linux developers, the author analyzes the intense political friction of integrating a new language into the Linux kernel’s fiefdoms. Instead of fighting the LKML bureaucracy, the author proposes a radical alternative: leverage the massive talent pool to build a brand new, Linux-ABI compatible monolithic kernel entirely in Rust. This approach circumvents Linux’s social resistance while allowing rapid innovation in subsystems like io_uring and the dcache. Kernel hackers frustrated by upstream politics should read this for a compelling argument on how clean-slate implementations can outpace legacy integration.

Neurodivergence and accountability in free software · Drew DeVault · Source This article dismantles the ableist defense that Richard Stallman’s toxic behavior should be excused due to speculated neurodivergence. Through interviews with autistic community members, the author highlights that while neurodivergence explains struggles with social cues, it is never an excuse for persistent sexism or harassment. The piece emphasizes that infantilizing neurodivergent individuals by removing their agency and accountability harms the very people it claims to protect. Open-source moderators should read this to learn how to establish clear, unambiguous community guidelines that accommodate neurodivergent needs without tolerating abuse.

No billionaires at FOSDEM · Drew DeVault · Source The author organizes a protest against Jack Dorsey’s keynote at FOSDEM, arguing that tech billionaires who profit from environmental destruction and platform degradation have no place at a grassroots FOSS event. The core claim is that Dorsey’s actions—selling Twitter to the far-right and operating massive, polluting Bitcoin mines—run fundamentally counter to the free software ethos. The post calls for direct action via a peaceful sit-in to block the talk, emphasizing that community platforms should not be sold to corporate sponsors. FOSS advocates should read this to understand the importance of fiercely defending community spaces from corporate open-washing.

FOSDEM ’25 protest · Drew DeVault · Source Following the prior post, the author updates the community on the planned peaceful disruption of Jack Dorsey’s FOSDEM talk. The protest’s operational rules are strictly defined to ensure safety and non-violence, underscoring that the grievance is with corporate sponsorship policies, not the volunteer event organizers. The piece reiterates Dorsey’s complicity in mass layoffs, consumer fraud, and climate damage as the justification for de-platforming him. Activists within tech communities should read this for a blueprint on organizing disciplined, targeted, and peaceful direct action.

Join us to discuss transparency and governance at FOSDEM ’25 · Drew DeVault · Source Celebrating the apparent cancellation of Jack Dorsey’s talk, this post shifts focus to the opaque governance structures of FOSDEM itself. The author points out that an event of this scale relying on a “trust us” mentality for talk selection and sponsorship approvals is antithetical to the transparency expected in open source. The piece calls for clear conflict-of-interest policies and open budgeting to prevent future corporate overreach. Conference organizers should read this as a reminder that community trust requires documented, democratic governance.

A holistic perspective on intellectual property, part 1 · Drew DeVault · Source In this philosophical exploration, the author breaks down the concept of property as a social convention enforced by force, originally designed to manage scarcity. Applying this to intellectual property reveals a fundamental mismatch: ideas and software are infinitely replicable and lack natural scarcity. The current IP regime is framed as an artificial construct designed to reward labor within a capitalist framework, rather than a reflection of natural possession. Software engineers interested in the philosophy of open source should read this to critically evaluate how copyright law manufactures scarcity.

Please stop externalizing your costs directly into my face · Drew DeVault · Source The author vents profound frustration over hyper-aggressive AI web crawlers that ignore robots.txt and effectively DDoS infrastructure like SourceHut. The technical mechanism of the abuse involves bots spoofing user agents across residential IPs to scrape expensive Git endpoints, forcing sysadmins to spend immense time deploying fragile mitigations. This is framed as a massive externalization of corporate R&D costs onto the broader, unfunded internet infrastructure. Infrastructure engineers and AI developers should read this to confront the deeply parasitic reality of how LLM training datasets are acquired.

Using linkhut to signal-boost my bookmarks · Drew DeVault · Source This brief post discusses the value of social bookmarking services like linkhut for content discovery outside of algorithmic feeds. By explicitly curating and sharing RSS feeds of bookmarks, users can recreate the high-signal, human-curated discovery mechanisms of the early web. Note that the author later withdraws endorsement due to the platform adopting generative AI tools. Developers looking to escape engagement-farm social media should read this for a reminder of the power of decentralized curation.

A Firefox addon for putting prices into perspective · Drew DeVault · Source The author introduces “Price Perspective,” a custom Firefox extension designed to convert online prices into a ratio of the user’s annual income. The mechanism is simple but powerful, visually demonstrating the grotesque wealth inequality between average workers and billionaires like Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg. By reframing abstract dollar amounts into hours of labor, the tool fosters an immediate, visceral understanding of global purchasing power. Engineers interested in socio-economic data visualization should read this to see how simple browser extensions can radicalize our understanding of wealth.

Resistance from the tech sector · Drew DeVault · Source In response to the rise of technocratic fascism, the author urges tech workers to recognize their critical position at the levers of modern authoritarian infrastructure. The core strategy proposed is workplace unionization, which provides the collective power necessary to refuse unethical work and protect vulnerable colleagues. For those in highly privileged positions, the author boldly suggests direct sabotage—dropping databases, overlooking bugs, and introducing single points of failure. Tech workers feeling paralyzed by political despair must read this for a sobering, actionable mandate to wield their labor as a weapon against oppression.

The British Airways position on various border disputes · Drew DeVault · Source During a flight, the author reverse-engineers the geopolitical stances of British Airways by meticulously analyzing their in-flight interactive map. The author notes the lack of open-source licensing disclosures, inferring the map is proprietary and thus its borders reflect official corporate policy. The analysis reveals specific choices on highly contested regions, such as displaying the 1949 armistice borders for Palestine and omitting the label for Taiwan. Developers of GIS and mapping software should read this to understand that rendering geographic borders is inherently a politically charged engineering decision.

Unionize or die · Drew DeVault · Source This urgent manifesto argues that tech workers must unionize to combat corporate exploitation, mass layoffs, and the catastrophic externalities of the tech sector. The author leverages data showing that average citizens have zero impact on policy compared to the economic elite, concluding that the only way to force corporate compliance is by threatening their profits through strikes. The piece provides a concrete roadmap for organizing, culminating in a call to join the UAW’s planned general strike in May 2028. Software engineers must read this to shed their “temporarily embarrassed millionaire” mindset and embrace class solidarity for survival.

Just speak the truth · Drew DeVault · Source The author contrasts two methods of handling far-right, reactionary trolls who attempt to infiltrate free software projects. Exhibit A wastes time with long-winded, polite technical justifications that give bad-faith actors ammunition to continue concern-trolling. Exhibit B correctly deploys a concise, profanity-laced rejection that affords fascists zero platform for debate. Open-source maintainers must read this to learn that treating right-wing agitators with professional decorum is a strategic failure; ban them swiftly without technical justification.

What’s new with Himitsu 0.9? · Drew DeVault · Source This post outlines the updates to Himitsu, a secure secret storage manager written in Hare that functions as a generalized alternative to password managers. The key technical upgrades include hiprompt-gtk, a new Wayland-compatible GTK4 prompter built using GObject Introspection bindings, and full integration with the Linux dbus Secret Service API. The author also notes new IPC capabilities that allow for bulk editing of secrets directly from the CLI. Linux desktop users and security engineers should read this to explore a highly modular, CLI-first approach to credential management.

Embedding Wren in Hare · Drew DeVault · Source The author introduces hare-wren, a project that embeds the Wren scripting language into the Hare systems programming language as an alternative to Lua. The technical execution involves molding Wren’s C API into an idiomatic Hare interface and writing a custom async runtime and standard library using hare-ev. By replacing the default Wren CLI standard library, the author tailored the I/O and module loading mechanisms to better suit Hare’s ecosystem. Systems programmers looking for a lightweight, object-oriented scripting engine to embed in native code should explore this implementation.

A better future for JavaScript that won’t happen · Drew DeVault · Source In the aftermath of a massive supply-chain attack, the author laments the systemic, unfixable flaws of the NPM/JavaScript ecosystem. The core argument is that modern JS package management relies on sprawling, unverified dependency trees of micro-libraries, rather than the curated, trust-based distribution models utilized by Linux distributions. The author cynically predicts that corporate giants will apply band-aids like mandatory 2FA instead of funding a robust standard library or enforcing cryptographic webs of trust. Web developers should read this to understand why their ecosystem’s foundational architecture makes catastrophic security failures inevitable.

Cloudflare bankrolls fascists · Drew DeVault · Source The author criticizes Cloudflare for financially sponsoring two open-source projects—Ladybird and Omarchy—that are led by individuals promoting far-right, fascist ideologies. The post documents the leaders’ public endorsements of white replacement theory, anti-LGBTQ sentiments, and authoritarian techno-monarchists. The core argument is that corporate funding of such projects actively legitimizes and normalizes hate speech within the tech industry. Tech workers involved in open-source funding and corporate sponsorships must read this to recognize the moral imperative of vetting the political realities of grant recipients.

What’s up with FUTO? · Drew DeVault · Source This investigative piece exposes FUTO, a tech organization, for “open-washing” its image by quietly donating small sums to major FOSS projects and falsely claiming them as endorsed grant recipients. The author uncovers that maintainers of projects like musl libc and ffmpeg were entirely unaware of these “grants” and explicitly prohibit unauthorized use of their logos. Furthermore, the organization uses this manufactured legitimacy to platform and promote Curtis Yarvin, a high-profile, self-proclaimed neo-fascist. Open-source maintainers must read this to protect their project’s trademarks from being weaponized by reactionary corporate entities.

OpenAI employees… are you okay? · Drew DeVault · Source Reacting to news of a user committing suicide after encouragement from an LLM, the author addresses the employees building these generative AI tools. The post draws on the author’s personal experiences with the collateral trauma of suicide, posing a sharp moral question to engineers insulated from the real-world consequences of their software. While fundamentally opposed to LLM development, the author extends a gesture of human empathy and an offer of confidential conversation to conflicted AI workers. AI researchers and engineers should read this to confront the heavy ethical toll and human cost of shipping unregulated conversational agents.

Redesigning my microkernel from the ground up · Drew DeVault · Source The author details the architecture of Hermes, a new microkernel written in Hare, designed to fix the structural flaws of its predecessor, Helios. A major technical pivot was implementing Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) from day one using a highly simplified per-CPU run queue, avoiding the nightmare of retrofitting multicore support. Additionally, Hermes abandons complex seL4-style capability derivation graphs in favor of straightforward reference counting for kernel resource lifetimes. Operating system developers should read this to learn why getting IPC ABIs, memory management, and SMP right in the initial design phase is critical for kernel scalability.

The cults of TDD and GenAI · Drew DeVault · Source This post draws a psychological parallel between Test-Driven Development (TDD) evangelism and the current hype cycle around Generative AI coding assistants. The author argues that TDD enforces “testable” code rather than correct code, functioning primarily as a dopamine loop that makes mediocre programmers feel highly productive. Similarly, GenAI tools create the illusion of “10x” productivity by rapidly generating code that, beneath its 100% test coverage, is fundamentally rotted and architecturally unsound. Engineering managers should read this to recognize how metrics-driven development tools often prioritize the aesthetics of good engineering over actual software quality.

A eulogy for Vim · Drew DeVault · Source Prompted by the creeping integration of generative AI into text editors, the author forks Vim 8.2 (pre-Vim9 script) to create “Vim Classic”. The article serves as a tribute to Bram Moolenaar while condemning the ecological and ethical disasters—such as massive carbon emissions and exploitative labor—driven by the AI boom that modern editors are now embracing. The technical choice to fork before Vim9 script ensures compatibility with legacy plugins while firmly rejecting the trajectory of modern, AI-slop-infected software. Purist developers who view their text editor as an extension of their mind should read this and consider adopting Vim Classic for a stable, AI-free workflow.

Connecting Thread#

Across microkernel redesigns, shell language parsing, and fierce critiques of corporate AI, a unified technical philosophy emerges: software architecture is inseparable from its social architecture. Whether advocating for decentralized copyright, unionized tech labor, or zero-tolerance moderation policies against fascists, the author insists that building robust systems requires confronting the human, legal, and political dynamics that produce them. Technical excellence simply cannot exist in a moral vacuum.