5 ms·

Is the fact that it is "written in Go" a selling point?

by miked85 6y ago

justin_oaks 6y ago
Some people prefer using a single binary rather than requiring a python installation.
- adkadskhj 6y ago
  Yup. Perhaps the language shouldn't matter as much, ideally maybe we'd talk about "runtime features" - which matter to the readers. "Single Binary, static link, No GC" etc. But the language serves to me as a small proxy for most of those attributes. Tell me a game engine is written in Python or Go and i can infer a lot about the intended audience or runtime performance characteristics. The HN crowd seems to be so annoyed by language recently, but to me they just scream of missing the point entirely. /shrug
omginternets 6y ago
Yes! For those who know Go, it means they'll be able to hack/improve/fix the software themselves. This question gets posted on every single "X written in Y", and I can't help but think it's an effortless way to broadcast some strange form of superiority (namely: by showing my exasperation with Go enthusiasts, I place myself in the category of people unimpressed by Go. Bonus points for mentioning Rust or Haskell.) This feeling is at odds with open source culture, where the ability to understand the code you're running is absolutely central. If you value Open Source, it should be pretty easy to understand how "written in language X" is a valuable piece of information.
- jdashg 6y ago
  The title doesn't say that it's open source, though. (nor its license) It's specifically advertising itself based on its language, not its qualities.
  - omginternets 6y ago
    GitHub wasn't a dead giveaway? How about the MIT License badge on the page? Come on, now... I think it's safe to say that one should check these (obvious) things before posting a snarky comment. It seems to me that this is part of the HN community ethos.
    - bityard 6y ago
      > GitHub wasn't a dead giveaway? There have been numerous source-available but proprietary github projects posted to HN.
      - omginternets 6y ago
        Good thing you can check the license!
- Fnoord 6y ago
  Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't Go yield better performance than Python?
  - FridgeSeal 6y ago
    Yes, by quite a decent margin.
gregoriol 6y ago
Yes, but it's just a trend. Could as well have been written in React. Joke apart, the trend to rewrite any single thing in Go/Rust is scary: why take something that is working and standard, and make it new? People have tried this hundreds of times as per hackernews history, and it's mostly not worth it. However, it is a good training, tutorial for Go.
- sieabahlpark 6y ago
  People vote it up, Google gets more people to use the SJW golang. The person feels validated for doing it and will promptly abandon it in a few months. It's equivalent to steam shovelware
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- eeZah7Ux 6y ago
  > the trend to rewrite any single thing in Go/Rust is scary Many useful projects get abandoned just because someone made a more popular alternative. In 2-3 years the rewrite in go/rust fad will fade and both the new and the old projects end up abandoned. I'll be downvoted to hell for this: jumping on fads harms the FLOSS ecosystem. Additions: also, static liking and embedding many dependencies harms Linux distributions.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
hda111 6y ago
Of course not. It's the same as with the Docker hype a few years ago. I don't get it. Still today everyone seems to think an app is better when it's "dockerized". Now with Go everyone can write buggy, memory leaking programs. I prefer apps written in C whenever a I can.
- eeZah7Ux 6y ago
  we need a fork of HN
- snazz 6y ago
  Garbage collection should make apps written in Go less memory-leaking and less buggy than those written in C, no?
- the_only_law 6y ago
  Not sure why on earth you think something would be non-buggy or non-leaky just because its written in C. I avoid C for almost any user mode work save a few things.
  - LambdaComplex 6y ago
    I'd expect the C to be buggier, personally
ashtonkem 6y ago
Only if you had issues with fail2ban's prior performance or ease of installation. Otherwise we start getting into partisan point scoring competitions over what critical services are written in what languages, which is incredibly tedious.
ahendriksen 6y ago
For me definitely! I have a tiny VPS running ARM that I use as a build server. I get so much SSH spam that it noticeably slows down the VPS (both with and without Fail2Ban).. "Written in Go" signifies to me that it can be faster and more resource-efficient than Fail2Ban: a good reason to check it out.
- abdusco 6y ago
  You should consider changing default SSH port. It helps a lot with the spam.
  - blibble 6y ago
    and/or add an iptables rule that limits the rate, set high enough such that you'll never hit it 1 line in your iptables config
  - coolspot 6y ago
    Also adding port knocking. https://netslovers.com/2018/02/28/port-knocking-server-securing-ssh-connection-centos-7/ https://netslovers.com/2018/02/28/port-knocking-server-secur...
- InvaderFizz 6y ago
  Is this really much of a problem? I have a VPS that's been online for years, serving port 22. I average about 200k attempts per year. I have it set to pubkey only, root can't login at all. If you connect without sending a pubkey, it pretty much instantly tells you to go away. I don't bother with fail2ban. Maybe I should start logging attempted pubkeys as a side project just to see what pops up.

Is the fact that it is "written in Go" a selling point?

justin_oaks 6y ago

Some people prefer using a single binary rather than requiring a python installation.

adkadskhj 6y ago
Yup. Perhaps the language shouldn't matter as much, ideally maybe we'd talk about "runtime features" - which matter to the readers. "Single Binary, static link, No GC" etc. But the language serves to me as a small proxy for most of those attributes. Tell me a game engine is written in Python or Go and i can infer a lot about the intended audience or runtime performance characteristics. The HN crowd seems to be so annoyed by language recently, but to me they just scream of missing the point entirely. /shrug

omginternets 6y ago

Yes! For those who know Go, it means they'll be able to hack/improve/fix the software themselves. This question gets posted on every single "X written in Y", and I can't help but think it's an effortless way to broadcast some strange form of superiority (namely: by showing my exasperation with Go enthusiasts, I place myself in the category of people unimpressed by Go. Bonus points for mentioning Rust or Haskell.) This feeling is at odds with open source culture, where the ability to understand the code you're running is absolutely central. If you value Open Source, it should be pretty easy to understand how "written in language X" is a valuable piece of information.

jdashg 6y ago
The title doesn't say that it's open source, though. (nor its license) It's specifically advertising itself based on its language, not its qualities.
- omginternets 6y ago
  GitHub wasn't a dead giveaway? How about the MIT License badge on the page? Come on, now... I think it's safe to say that one should check these (obvious) things before posting a snarky comment. It seems to me that this is part of the HN community ethos.
  - bityard 6y ago
    > GitHub wasn't a dead giveaway? There have been numerous source-available but proprietary github projects posted to HN.
    - omginternets 6y ago
      Good thing you can check the license!
Fnoord 6y ago
Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't Go yield better performance than Python?
- FridgeSeal 6y ago
  Yes, by quite a decent margin.

gregoriol 6y ago

Yes, but it's just a trend. Could as well have been written in React. Joke apart, the trend to rewrite any single thing in Go/Rust is scary: why take something that is working and standard, and make it new? People have tried this hundreds of times as per hackernews history, and it's mostly not worth it. However, it is a good training, tutorial for Go.

sieabahlpark 6y ago
People vote it up, Google gets more people to use the SJW golang. The person feels validated for doing it and will promptly abandon it in a few months. It's equivalent to steam shovelware
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
eeZah7Ux 6y ago
> the trend to rewrite any single thing in Go/Rust is scary Many useful projects get abandoned just because someone made a more popular alternative. In 2-3 years the rewrite in go/rust fad will fade and both the new and the old projects end up abandoned. I'll be downvoted to hell for this: jumping on fads harms the FLOSS ecosystem. Additions: also, static liking and embedding many dependencies harms Linux distributions.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

hda111 6y ago

Of course not. It's the same as with the Docker hype a few years ago. I don't get it. Still today everyone seems to think an app is better when it's "dockerized". Now with Go everyone can write buggy, memory leaking programs. I prefer apps written in C whenever a I can.

eeZah7Ux 6y ago
we need a fork of HN
snazz 6y ago
Garbage collection should make apps written in Go less memory-leaking and less buggy than those written in C, no?
the_only_law 6y ago
Not sure why on earth you think something would be non-buggy or non-leaky just because its written in C. I avoid C for almost any user mode work save a few things.
- LambdaComplex 6y ago
  I'd expect the C to be buggier, personally

ashtonkem 6y ago

Only if you had issues with fail2ban's prior performance or ease of installation. Otherwise we start getting into partisan point scoring competitions over what critical services are written in what languages, which is incredibly tedious.

ahendriksen 6y ago

For me definitely! I have a tiny VPS running ARM that I use as a build server. I get so much SSH spam that it noticeably slows down the VPS (both with and without Fail2Ban).. "Written in Go" signifies to me that it can be faster and more resource-efficient than Fail2Ban: a good reason to check it out.

abdusco 6y ago
You should consider changing default SSH port. It helps a lot with the spam.
- blibble 6y ago
  and/or add an iptables rule that limits the rate, set high enough such that you'll never hit it 1 line in your iptables config
- coolspot 6y ago
  Also adding port knocking. https://netslovers.com/2018/02/28/port-knocking-server-securing-ssh-connection-centos-7/ https://netslovers.com/2018/02/28/port-knocking-server-secur...
InvaderFizz 6y ago
Is this really much of a problem? I have a VPS that's been online for years, serving port 22. I average about 200k attempts per year. I have it set to pubkey only, root can't login at all. If you connect without sending a pubkey, it pretty much instantly tells you to go away. I don't bother with fail2ban. Maybe I should start logging attempted pubkeys as a side project just to see what pops up.