To me, the two major problems are:
- no namespaces
Someone uploads "serde2"? that's blocked forever. Someone uploads a typo version of a popular package? Too bad for you, learn how to type.
- the github connection
If you want to contribute to crates.io you're bound to github. No gitlab, codeberg, gitee, sourcehut, etc.
Not sure if there are any other problems, but those two seem like the biggest things and #1 is AFAIK not something they ever want to change + it would be difficult to as one would need a migration strategy.
Apparently there's an effort underway. I don't have any more context than this:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38020117
I will say that I actually like the flat namespace, but don't have a strong opinion
Why should I believe this?
I followed the link in echelon's HN profile to their GitHub profile. It's the same name, like you'd expect, but I had to check.
If they were a member of the Rust project, they'd have an entry in the rust-lang/team repository, and they don't. The fact that they've written some code in the Rust language doesn't automatically make them trustworthy, or give them information about what happens in closed council meetings.
You should believe it as much as you want. I don't have any inside knowledge myself, I just remembered an HN comment that was relevant to this post and linked it.
I hope they don't end up fragmenting the community or the ecosystem.
Interesting. Nice to know there are more people who agree and with the time to do something. Hopefully something will come of it.