If you have spent any time surfing dev Twitter, Github, or any Reddit thread that involves modern programming, you have probably encountered Rust many times. No I am not talking about rust the metal corrosion (but the folks with expertise with Rust will tell you that these memory bugs are equivalent to corrosion). We are talking about the programming language Rust that has been rapidly gaining momentum in software (mostly quietly, and sometimes not so quietly).
What is the deal with Rust? What's with Google, Microsoft, and even parts of the Linux kernel beginning to bet on Rust? Let's have a look into it.
Rust: Safety with No Tradeoffs
Rust is all about safety, its big selling point is that it allows you to write hyperfast code without the perilous bugs associated with C and C++, particularly memory management bugs such as null pointer dereferencing, buffer overflows, and use-after-free bugs.
How does it do that? Enter the borrow checker. You can think of it as Rust's super strick librarian trying to make sure your variables aren't getting accessed in a way that makes your code crash or choke itself a bit. Is it annoying at first (and trust me as a new Rustacean, I do know), but ultimately you will turn that annoyment into livelihood writing Rust code.
Zero-Cost Abstractions
Normally you have to choose. Low-level control or a high-level convenience. Rust says "Why not both?"
Rust provides you with a lot of features such as pattern matching, traits, enums, and an extremely expressive type system at no performance cost! The compiler is smart enough to drop all the fluff so the end resulting binary is surprisingly lean and mean.
This means that Rust is good for system programming (operating systems, embedded devices), but also for web services, game engine, etc.
A Real-World affection
Let’s talk about adoption. This isn’t just a playground for language nerds anymore:
Mozilla created Rust and used it in Firefox’s rendering engine (Servo).
Microsoft is exploring Rust for writing secure system components in Windows.
Amazon is backing Rust through AWS and using it to build scalable, efficient infrastructure.
The Linux Kernel: that 30-year-old codebase, is slowly adding Rust support. If that’s not a vote of confidence, I don’t know what is.
Why Devs Are Switching
Here’s what draws developers to Rust:
Memory safety without garbage collection (no runtime surprise costs)
Great tooling (Cargo is probably the best package manager/build tool combo out there)
Friendly, helpful community (check out users.rust-lang.org or the Rust subreddit)
Fantastic documentation (the Rust Book is basically a masterclass)
But let’s be honest, the learning curve can be steep. Rust makes you think about your code. Ownership, lifetimes, and borrowing are a different beast. But once it clicks? You’re writing code that’s safe, fast, and often surprisingly elegant.
What’s Next?
Rust won't just fade away. With large tech companies covering it, a dedicated community, and proven world success stories, it is on track to be a real player in systems and application development.
Only you can decide whether you are a grizzled C++ veteran tired of dangling pointers or a high level Pythonista that wants to write something that is faster than a caffeinated squirrel, but either way you should give Rust a look.
You can try Rust out right now with nothing to install. Just go to and start playing. The community also recommends checking out The Rust Book. It is completely free, well written, and highly useful.
Final Thoughts
Rust is not perfect. It can be maddening at first. But it can also be liberating. Rust forces you to write better code, consider safety, and produce software that does not blow up in production.
Why not give it a try? The worst thing that will happen is that you walk away with a different outlook on memory. The best thing that can happen? You will become one of the cool kids writing really good systems code in Rust.
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