I Asked An AI Bot

I asked an AI: What are the hot topics happening with GNU Linux right now?

Seeking inspiration to write this article, I sat down at my computer and searched for an AI to bring me up to speed on the latest and “hottest” topics happening with GNU Linux right now.

Why did I do that? It would have been better if I had never known... Let's see then.

Linux today: Corrupted, distorted, and controlled

The AI then provided topics for articles and gave me several interesting subjects that are at the top of Linux topics.

1. The End of Rust's “Experimental Era” in the Kernel

Recently (December 2025), the use of Rust in Linux kernel development is no longer considered experimental and has been officially adopted as permanent.

The Controversy: The community is divided. On one side, memory safety advocates celebrate; on the other, “old guard” C developers complain about the extra complexity and the need for new compilation tools.

2. The “Enshittification” of Red Hat (IBM)

The increasing integration of Red Hat into IBM's structures (planned to intensify in 2026) continues to generate concern in the open source community.

The controversy: Internal teams in areas such as HR and Finance at Red Hat are being absorbed by IBM, which many see as the ultimate loss of independence for the company that “carries” much of the development of the ecosystem (GNOME, SystemD, Wayland).

The Debate: The term “Enshittification” (the decline in quality in pursuit of profit) has been widely used to describe the current corporate business model in Linux.

3. Cleaning Up Terms in the Kernel (The “Genocide” Case)

This December, Kernel 6.19 officially removed a function called d_genocide().

The Controversy: Although the change follows the inclusive language guidelines adopted a few years ago, the removal of this specific function (which had existed for decades with the technical purpose of clearing the directory cache) reignited the debate about “language policing” vs. “necessary modernization” in the source code.

Well, machines don't have critical thinking skills, and they just report what they find.

Let's now analyze and counter each of the three topics that AI chose for me.

1. Rust in the Linux Kernel

Rust in the Linux kernel is a bad idea. Rust, as a language, as a finished product, is less than 15 years old, having been initially released in 2015. Now, replacing C, a language that has been around for over 50 years, created in the 1960s, with one that is not yet mature, in mission-critical environments? It is reckless and irresponsible.

And let's not forget that Cloudflare's crash was due to a Rust module, which triggered a worldwide cascade effect and left the internet down for several hours. Rust apologists will say that Cloudflare was to blame, but as the old saying goes: If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. And that's what will be expected of Rust: Always heavy lifting and mission-critical.

But if Rust is so immature, why is there pressure to adopt it?

1.1. Rust's license – Rust has a dual license: MIT and Apache 2.0, which are permissive enough to allow corporations to do whatever they want with it, and without any infectious clauses, such as those found in the GPL. So, if the Linux kernel is “converted” to Rust, it will cease to be what it is today and will become another product controlled by corporations, rather than a joint effort between the community and corporations.

1.2. The US government, DARPA, and various military agencies recommend its use. Is it because of security? Well, we can only speculate that the US government wants Rust to be its new backdoor. Being a language that is difficult to debug and reverse engineer, it could hide many secret functions that would facilitate espionage. More or less like the TOR protocol, a huge honey pot (which I still want to write about).

Could any machine make these criticisms? Of course not, after all, they only repeat what they have been “taught.”

2. The “Enshittification” of Red Hat (IBM)

This has been going on for some time now, and Red Hat has betrayed many of its principles. But that's what happens when a company becomes a multi-billion dollar enterprise: it throws moral scruples out the window and focuses on making money and gaining control over its core product: GNU Linux, which I think will soon be called systemD-Linux, given how big this init system has become. Not to mention that Red Hat controls several projects essential to GNU Linux: the GTK libraries, the Gnome project, Wayland, Pipewire, and many others.

But despite all this, Red Hat does not own the GNU Linux project. There is a lot of volunteer work within GNU Linux. People like Kon Colivas, Paul Bristow, and many others, who are volunteers and do not belong to any company, but work for the common good of all users. And volunteers like this are becoming increasingly rare, as the policies surrounding the development of the Linux kernel are becoming very oppressive, with codes of conduct and bureaucracy that hinder the work of community volunteers. And this is designed to be this way.

3. Cleaning Up Terms in the Kernel (The “Genocide” Case)

Oh, dear God, why? Why more PC nonsense?

Come on, computer terms were created a long time ago, and changing them to non-aggressive or politically correct language is creating dissent where none exists. Master/slave drives have been around forever, but what politically correct people forget is that the first slaves were Caucasians in ancient Greece and Rome, not to mention that more recently (in medieval Ireland, slavery was a common practice even before the Vikings arrived on the island).

Now changing the terms in the Linux kernel is more about corporations exercising their political power than acting in a politically correct manner, opening yet another avenue to oppress volunteer programmers, those who do not have a company behind them.

With all this “good news,” is there any upside to this?

Well, I complained to the AI: Only bad news?

And what's worse: With so much going on in the development of GNU Linux, people are abandoning the system. I have several friends who are migrating to BSD (ARGH!), because of political changes in Linux, which are not pleasing a good portion of the community.

And migrating to BSD is quite extreme: hardware support is very weak and corporations don't help it, on the contrary: the more useless it is to the end user, the better for corporations.

And I asked again: Only bad news? What positive things can you tell me that are happening now with GNU Linux?

There is good news, we just have to look in the right direction!

As bad as some news may seem (the corruption of GNU Linux's community ideals, its decharacterization with Rust, or more corporate control via politically correct maneuvers), we still have good news:

1) The “5% Barrier” and the Year of Desktop Linux

Recent data from Statcounter shows that Linux (including ChromeOS in some metrics) has finally broken the psychological barrier of 5% market share on desktops in regions such as the US.

Of course, Linux got a little help from Microsoft, condemning around 44 million computers, but it is still a major breakthrough.

2) Framework and the Ethics of Repair

The resounding success of Framework (modular laptops) running Linux by default is forcing giants like Dell and Lenovo to rethink the design of their devices.

The Good News: There is a movement back toward sustainability. Linux is the hero here, as it allows machines from 10 years ago to remain fast and secure, combating planned obsolescence.

3) The Rebirth of Open Hardware (RISC-V)

While x86 (Intel/AMD) and ARM architectures are becoming increasingly closed with DRM and hardware-based “security” that users cannot control, Linux is leading the RISC-V explosion.

The Good News: 2025 saw the release of truly powerful and affordable RISC-V laptops and boards. Linux is the standard operating system for this revolution. It is a return to hardware sovereignty: a processor without “backdoors” from large corporations.

4) Wine and Proton: The end of Windows software “prison”

The compatibility layer (Valve/Steam) has reached a level of perfection that was unthinkable three years ago.

The Good News: Today, the difference in performance between running a game (or even professional software such as the Affinity suite or CADs) on Windows vs. Linux is almost non-existent. In some cases, Linux performs better because it has a kernel that is less “cluttered” with telemetry.

5) Xlibre releases version 25.1.0

Some highlights of this new version:

• Over 1,500 commits


• Support for the following platforms: Dragonfly BSD, FreeBSD, Win32


• Support for SEATD (systemD-free user administration)


• Integrated Xfbdev (great for embedded Linux)


• Improved support for Nvidia proprietary drivers

A new year begins, and I wish I could have only good news for everyone. Unfortunately, however, we have the interference of many companies with no ethics or morals regarding the development of GNU Linux. Therefore, it is better to be safe than sorry: observe what is happening and what may happen, so that you are prepared for the right changes at the right times.

I wish everyone a great 2026, and let's remain vigilant so we can adopt the right strategy in these uncertain times.