Are there not many statically typed, compiled languages that ship a runtime with a garbage collector? Not really a huge number, no. Java is probably the most o

Are there not many statically typed, compiled languages that ship a runtime with a garbage collector? Not really a huge number, no. Java is probably the most obvious, if you count that as compiled. Maybe Haskell or D? I suppose even Swift of Objective C if you include RC in the definition of GC. I would say the focus shouldn't be entirely on GC, however. Safety as a whole is the most important factor, and it's possible to be say without GC, as you point out. I reckon Go is actually quite an attractive language for this sort of application regardless – quite safe, quite lightweight, good libraries.