This is not so unreasonable a question, but the answer is simple: because it's ubiquitous, fairly standardised, and well supported. Also, other languages suck

This is not so unreasonable a question, but the answer is simple: because it's ubiquitous, fairly standardised, and well supported. Also, other languages suck at doing small things quickly and simply. Try rewriting a shell script in go with little experience and see how long it takes.