I think this number is overblown. Production useful doesn’t have to mean 1:1.
Running it without all graphics drivers would be fine for server use. Also, not all filesystems need to be ported: basic ones should be enough for start. But not only servers, home routers run Linux kernel…
If every OEM starts contributing their drivers in rust, this could move quickly…
There are some really nice designs here. I really hope that KDE finally gets to pay attention to this. I love simplification of it.
One thing I don’t like here is the login screen. There is too much stuff on it. I think gnome’s login screen, as it is now, is fantastic.
And one more thing, proposal for mindset change: not everything has to be a widget. Some things (like shell) could have layouts: layout as current plasma/windows, layout as gnome, layout as Mac, layout as Win8… If things get well thought out, you can integrate this and switch layouts and not di*k around with widgets. Less moving parts, less problems.