eBPF is one of those technologies that immediately feels powerful but rarely feels friendly at the start. I wanted to experiment with user‑space probes using Rust and Aya, but the setup itself was solid, but the combination of ARM processors, Podman security constraints, and Aya’s toolchain requirements made the early steps unexpectedly tricky: a Mac Studio M3 Ultra as the primary machine and a Linux laptop where container‑based attempts (Podman) were unreliable. Aya itself pulls in a non‑trivial toolchain, and I initially ended up on nightly Rust with a scattered set of workarounds.
The periodic Rust-induced conflicts happening with the Linux kernel hint at underlying generational problems facing the project. And it’s already led a prominent maintainer to quit.
The history of WD-40, a chemical substance with an unusual origin story and a rust-fighting ability that has become a standby of workbenches the world over.