Rust in Production

Gama Space with Sebastian Scholz

Space exploration demands software that is reliable, efficient, and able to operate in the harshest environments imaginable. When a spacecraft deploys a solar sail millions of kilometers from Earth, there's no room for memory bugs, race conditions, or software failures. This is where Rust's robustness guarantees become mission-critical.In this episode, we speak with Sebastian Scholz, an engineer at Gama Space, a French company pioneering solar sail and drag sail technology for spacecraft propulsion and deorbiting. We explore how Rust is being used in aerospace applications, the unique challenges of developing software for space systems, and what it takes to build reliable embedded systems that operate beyond Earth's atmosphere.About Gama SpaceGama Space is a French aerospace company founded in 2020 and headquartered in Ivry-sur-Seine, France. The company develops space propulsion and orbital technologies with a mission to keep space accessible. Their two main product lines are solar sails for deep space exploration using the sun's infinite energy, and drag sails—the most effective way to deorbit satellites and combat space debris. After just two years of R&D, Gama successfully launched their satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9. The Gama Alpha mission is a 6U cubesat weighing just 11 kilograms that deploys a large 73.3m² sail. With 48 employees, Gama is at the forefront of making space exploration more sustainable and accessible.About Sebastian ScholzSebastian Scholz is an engineer at Gama Space, where he works on developing software systems for spacecraft propulsion technology. His work involves building reliable, safety-critical embedded systems that must operate flawlessly in the extreme conditions of space. Sebastian brings expertise in systems programming and embedded development to one of the most demanding environments for software engineering.Links From The EpisodeGAMA-ALPHA - The demonstration satellite launched in January 2023Ada - Safety-focused programming language used in aerospaceprobe-rs - Embedded debugging toolkit for Rusthyper - Fast and correct HTTP implementation for RustFlutter - Google's UI toolkit for cross-platform developmentUART - Very common low level communication protocolHamming Codes - Error correction used to correct bit flipsRexus/Bexus - European project for sub-orbital experiments by studentsEmbassy - The EMBedded ASsYnchronous frameworkCSP - The Cubesat Space Protocolstd::num::NonZero - A number in Rust that can't be 0std::ffi::CString - A null-byte terminated StringRust in Production: KSAT - Our episode with Vegard about using Rust for Ground Station operationsRust in Production: Oxide - Our episode with Steve, mentioning HubrisHubris - Oxide's embedded operating systemZeroCopy - Transmute data in-place without allocationsstd::mem::transmute - Unsafe function to treat a memory section as a different type than beforeOfficial LinksGama Space WebsiteGama Space on LinkedInGama Space on Crunchbase

Radar with Jeff Kao

Radar processes billions of location events daily, powering geofencing and location APIs for companies like Uber, Lyft, and thousands of other apps. When their existing infrastructure started hitting performance and cost limits, they built HorizonDB, a specialized database which replaced both Elasticsearch and MongoDB with a custom single binary written in Rust and backed by RocksDB.In this episode, we dive deep into the technical journey from prototype to production. We talk about RocksDB internals, finite-state transducers, the intricacies of geospatial indexing with Hilbert curves, and why Rust's type system and performance characteristics made it the perfect choice for rewriting critical infrastructure that processes location data at massive scale.About RadarRadar is the leading geofencing and location platform, trusted by companies like Uber, Lyft, and thousands of apps to power location-based experiences. Processing billions of location events daily, Radar provides geofencing APIs, geocoding, and location tracking that enables developers to build powerful location-aware applications. Their infrastructure handles massive scale with a focus on accuracy, performance, and reliability.About Jeff KaoJeff Kao is a Staff Engineer at Radar, where he led the development of HorizonDB, Radar's geospatial database written in Rust. His work replaced Elasticsearch and MongoDB with a custom Rust stack built on RocksDB, achieving dramatic improvements in performance and cost efficiency. Jeff has deep experience with geospatial systems and previously open-sourced Node.js TypeScript bindings for Google's S2 library. He holds a degree from the University of Waterloo.Links From The EpisodeRadar Blog: High-Performance Geocoding in Rust - The blog post, which describes Radar's migration from Elasticsearch and MongoDB to Rust and RocksDBFourSquare - The compay Jeff worked at beforeRuby - The basis for RailsPagerDuty) - Another company Jeff worked at. Hes' been around!CoffeeScript - The first big JavaScript alternative before TypeScriptScala - A functional JVM based languageWikipedia: MapReduce - Distributed application of functional programmingWikipedia: Algebraic Data Types - The concept behind Rust's Enums, also present in e.g. ScalaKotlin - Easier than Scala, better than JavaApache Lucene - The core of ElasticSearchDiscord Blog: Why Discord is switching from Go to Rust - Always the #1 result in searches for Rust migrationsRadar Blog: Introducing HorizonDB - A really nice write up of Horizon's architectureRocksDB - The primary storage layer used in HorizonDBMyRocks - A MySQL Storage Engine using RocksDB, written by FacebookMongoRocks - A MongoDB Storage Layer using RocksDBCockroachDB - PostgreSQL compatible, distributed, SQL DatabaseInfluxDB - A timeseries database that used RocksDB at one point, and our very first guest in this Podcast!sled - An embedded database written in Rustrocksdb - Rust bindings for RocksDBH3 - Uber's Geo Hashing using hexagonsS2 - Google's Geo Hashing libraryWikipedia: Hilbert Curve - A way to map 2 dimensions onto 1 while retaining proximityWikipedia: Finite-State Transducer - A state machine used for efficiently looking up if a word exists in the data setRust in Production: Astral - Our episode with Charlie Marsh about tooling for the Python ecosystemburntsushi - A very prolific Rust developer, now working at Astralfst - FST crate from burntsushiWikipedia: Trie - A tree-structure using common prefixesWikipedia: Levenshtein Distance - The number of letters you have to change, add, or remove to turn word a into word btantivy - A full-text search engine, written in Rust, inspired by LuceneLightGBM - A gradient boosted tree, similar to a decision treefastText - A text classification library from MetaWikipedia: Inverted Index - An index used for e.g. full text searchWikipedia: Okapi BM25 - The ranking algorithm used in tantivyWikipedia: tf-idf - A classic and simple ranking algorithmRoaring Bitmaps - A very fast bitset library used in many placescorrode.dev: Be Simple - A sentiment right down Matthias' alleyloco-rs - Rust on RailsOfficial LinksRadarRadar BlogRadar DocumentationJeff Kao on LinkedIn

Holiday Episode

As we close the chapter on 2025 and celebrate our second year of 'Rust in Production', it's time to reflect on the highlights of the 17 episodes since our last holiday special. We looked at Rust from all angles, from cloud infrastructure to embedded systems, and from robotics to satellite technology. One thing that all these stories have in common is the passion and dedication of the Rust community to build faster, safer, and more reliable software.In this special episode, we look back at some of the memorable moments from the past year and celebrate Rust's achievements. This goes beyond the case studies we've covered; it's about the Rust community as a whole and the state of the Rust ecosystem at the end of 2025.Links from the Show:Code.Talks Talk - Matthias' presentation on Rust case studiesStack Overflow Developer Survey 2025 - Rust as most admired language since 1.0 releaseBrave with Anton Lazarev (S03E07) - Rust as the go-to languageVolvo with Julius Gustavsson (S03E08) - Empowering engineersAstral with Charlie Marsh (S04E03) - Welcoming community leads to huge impactScythe with Andrew Tinka (S05E02) - Confidence in what you buildRust4Linux CVE - The first CVE in Rust for LinuxGreg KH post - Context on kernel CVE statisticscurl with Daniel Stenberg (S02E01) - Bug reports every three hours, code constantly changescurl statistics - How old code gets rewritten all the timeTembo with Adam Hendel (S04E05) - Software is never doneRedis CVE-2025-49844 - Remote code execution vulnerability from use-after-freeCanonical with John Seager (S05E05) - Ubuntu is optimistic about RustRust in Android - Memory safety vulnerabilities below 20%Android statistics - 3.9 billion active devices worldwideRoc with Richard Feldman (S05E04) - Focus on the end userSvix with Tom Hacohen (S04E02) - Love it, but compile times...Prime Video with Alexandru Ene (S05E01) - Build times need to improvecrates.io - 200 billion crate downloads and 200k published cratesCloudflare with Kevin Guthrie and Edward Wang (S05E03) - Ecosystem is fantastic; thanks to all maintainersRust Conferences 2026 - Complete list of upcoming Rust conferencesCodeCrafters Course - Build your own HTTP server in RustRust Project Goals - November update on 41 active project goalscargo-script RFC - Run Rust scripts without full Cargo projectsBetter pin ergonomics RFC - Improving async Rust ergonomicsKSAT with Vegard Sandengen (S04E07) - Make async better1Password with Andrew Burkhart (S04E06) - Make it easier to learn RustRust Book by Brown University - Interactive learning resource for RustClippy lints - All available linter rules for RustC++ and Rust interop - Safer language interoperability initiativeMicrosoft with Victor Ciura (S04E01) - C++ doesn't have to die for Rust to succeedBorrowSanitizer initiative - LLVM instrumentation for detecting aliasing violationsPolonius - Next-generation borrow checkerRust with Niko Matsakis (S04E04) - Be excellent to each other (Bill & Ted reference)

Rust4Linux with Danilo Krummrich

Bringing Rust into the Linux kernel is one of the most ambitious modernization efforts in open source history. The Linux kernel, with its decades of C code and deeply ingrained development practices, is now opening its doors to a memory-safe language. It's the first time in over 30 years that a new programming language has been officially adopted for kernel development. But the journey is far from straightforward.In this episode, we speak with Danilo Krummrich, Linux kernel maintainer and Rust for Linux core team member, about the groundbreaking work of integrating Rust into the Linux kernel. Among other things, we talk about the Nova GPU driver, a Rust-based successor to Nouveau for NVIDIA graphics cards, and discuss the technical challenges and cultural shifts required for large-scale Rust adoption in the kernel as well as the future of the Rust4Linux project.About Rust for LinuxRust for Linux is a project aimed at bringing the Rust programming language into the Linux kernel. Started to improve memory safety and reduce vulnerabilities in kernel code, the project has been gradually building the infrastructure, abstractions, and tooling necessary for Rust to coexist with the kernel's existing C codebase.About Danilo KrummrichDanilo Krummrich is a software engineer at Red Hat and a core contributor to the Rust for Linux project. His fundamental contribution to Rust for Linux is the driver-core infrastructure, the foundational framework that makes it possible to write drivers in Rust at all. This includes both C and Rust code that provides the core abstractions for device drivers in the kernel. Danilo is a maintainer for multiple critical kernel subsystems, including Driver Core, DRM (GPUVM, Rust, GPU Scheduler), GPU drivers for NVIDIA GPUs (Nova, Nouveau), Firmware Loader API, as well as Rust bindings for PCI, DMA, and ALLOC. He is the primary developer of the Nova GPU driver, a fully Rust-based driver for modern NVIDIA GPUs.Links From The EpisodeAOSP - The Android Open Source ProjectKernel Mailing Lists - Where the Linux development happensMiguel Ojeda - Rust4Linux maintainerWedson Almeida Filho - Retired Rust4Linux maintainernoveau driver - The old driver for NVIDIA GPUsVulkan - A low level graphics APIMesa - Vulkan and OpenGL implementation for Linuxvtable - Indirect function call, a source of headaches in nouveauDRM - Direct Rendering Manager, Linux subsystem for all things graphicsMonolithic Kernel - Linux' kernel architectureThe Typestate Pattern in Rust - A very nice way to model state machines in Rustpinned-init - The userspace crate for pin-initrustfmt - Free up space in your brain by not thinking about formattingkunit - Unit testing framework for the kernelRust core crate - The only part of the Rust Standard Library used in the Linux kernelAlexandre Courbot - NVIDIA employed co-maintainer of nova-coreGreg Kroah-Hartman - Linux Foundation fellow and major Linux contributorDave Airlie - Maintainer of the DRM treevim - not even neovimmutt - classic terminal e-mail clientaerc - a pretty good terminal e-mail clientRust4Linux Zulip - The best entry point for the Rust4Linux communityOfficial LinksRust for Linux GitHubDanilo Krummrich on GitHubDanilo Krummrich on LinkedIn

Canonical with Jon Seager

What does it take to rewrite the foundational components of one of the world's most popular Linux distributions? Ubuntu serves over 12 million daily desktop users alone, and the systems that power it, from sudo to core utilities, have been running for decades with what Jon Seager, VP of Engineering for Ubuntu at Canonical, calls "shaky underpinnings."In this episode, we talk to Jon about the bold decision to "oxidize" Ubuntu's foundation. We explore why they're rewriting critical components like sudo in Rust, how they're managing the immense risk of changing software that millions depend on daily, and what it means to modernize a 20-year-old operating system without breaking the internet.About CanonicalCanonical is the company behind Ubuntu, one of the most widely-used Linux distributions in the world. From personal desktops to cloud infrastructure, Ubuntu powers millions of systems globally. Canonical's mission is to make open source software available to people everywhere, and they're now pioneering the adoption of Rust in foundational system components to improve security and reliability for the next generation of computing.About Jon SeagerJon Seager is VP Engineering for Ubuntu at Canonical, where he oversees the Ubuntu Desktop, Server, and Foundations teams. Appointed to this role in January 2025, Jon is driving Ubuntu's modernization strategy with a focus on Communication, Automation, Process, and Modernisation. His vision includes adopting memory-safe languages like Rust for critical infrastructure components. Before this role, Jon spent three years as VP Engineering building Juju and Canonical's catalog of charms. He's passionate about making Ubuntu ready for the next 20 years of computing.Links From The EpisodeJuju - Jon's previous focus, a cloud orchestration toolGNU coretuils - The widest used implementation of commands like ls, rm, cp, and moreuutils coreutils - coreutils implementation in Rustsudo-rs - For your Rust based sandwiches needsLTS - Long Term Support, a release model popularized by Ubuntucoreutils-from-uutils - List of symbolic links used for coreutils on Ubuntu, some still point to the GNU implementationman: sudo -E - Example of a feature that sudo-rs does not supportSIMD - Single instruction, multiple datarust-coreutils - The Ubuntu package with all it's supported CPU platforms listedfastcat - Matthias' blogpost about his faster version of catsystemd-run0 - Alternative approach to sudo from the systemd projectAppArmor - The Linux Security Module used in UbuntuPAM - The Pluggable Authentication Modules, which handles all system authentication in LinuxSSSD - Enables LDAP user profiles on Linux machinesntpd-rs - Timesynchronization daemon written in Rust which may land in Ubuntu 26.04Trifecta Tech Foundation - Foundation supporting sudo-rs developmentSequioa PGP - OpenPGP tools written in RustMir - Canonicals wayland compositor library, uses some RustAnbox Cloud - Canonical's Android streaming platform, includes Rust componentsSimon Fels - Original creator of Anbox and Anbox Cloud team lead at CanonicalLXD - Container and VM hypervisordqlite - SQLite with a replication layer for distributed use cases, potentially being rewritten in RustRust for Linux - Project to add Rust support to the Linux kernelNova GPU Driver - New Linux OSS driver for NVIDIA GPUs written in RustUbuntu Asahi - Community project for Ubuntu on Apple Silicondebian-devel: Hard Rust requirements from May onward - Parts of apt are being rewritten in Rust (announced a month after the recording of this episode)Go Standard Library - Providing things like network protocols, cryptographic algorithms, and even tools to handle image formatsPython Standard Library - The origin of "batteries included"The Rust Standard Library - Basic types, collections, filesystem access, threads, processes, synchronisation, and not much moreclap - Superstar library for CLI option parsingserde - Famous high-level serilization and deserialization interface crateOfficial LinksCanonicalUbuntuJon Seager's WebsiteJon's Blog: Engineering Ubuntu For The Next 20 YearsCanonical BlogUbuntu BlogCanonical Careers: Engineering - Apply your Rust skills in the Linux ecosystem