There was no way to implement a smart pointer in even a halfway usable and reliable way without move semantics, so C++11 is absolutely essential to use them wel

There was no way to implement a smart pointer in even a halfway usable and reliable way without move semantics, so C++11 is absolutely essential to use them well. Also I fully agree with the general sentiment. I have not produced a memory leak in many, many years in dozens of hobby projects or in a handful of professional C++ use. It's truly is a giant game changer. You can produce a leak with shared_ptr, but only if you do shit that looks dangerous and stinks to high heavens (a bit similar to the unsafe keyword).