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> First things first, let’s establish some ground. Go is a good language for writing servers, but Go is not a language for writing servers. Go is a general purp

> First things first, let’s establish some ground. Go is a good language for writing servers, but Go is not a language for writing servers. Go is a general purpose programming language, just like C, C++, Java or Python Really? Even years later in 2025, this never ended up being true. Unless your definition of 'general purpose' specifically excludes anything UI-related, like on desktop, web or mobile, or AI-related. I know it's written in 2017, but reading it now in 2025 and seeing the author comparing it to Python of all languages in the context of it's supposed 'general purpose'ness is just laughable. Even Flutter doesn't support go. granted, that seems like a very deliberate decision to justify Dart's existence.

pjmlp 2y ago
In an alternative timeline, had Rust 1.0 been available when Docker pivoted away from Python into Go, and Kubernetes from Java into Go, due to having Go folks pushing for the rewrite, and most likely they would have been taken by RIIR instead, nowadays spreading across Python and JavaScript ecosystem, including rewriting tools originally written in Go.
- cyberax 2y ago
  Nope. Rust is not a good tool for servers. It's downright terrible, in fact. Goroutines help _a_ _lot_ with concurrency.
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Go tell that to Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft.
dlisboa 2y ago
> Unless your definition of 'general purpose' specifically excludes anything UI-related, like on desktop, web or mobile, or AI-related. By that definition no language is general purpose. There is no language today that excels in GUI (desktop/mobile), web development, AI, cloud infrastructure, and all the other stuff like systems, embedded...And all at the same time. For instance I have never seen or heard of a successful Python desktop app (or mobile for that matter).
- pkilgore 2y ago
  I think the whole argument here is silly, but I do know kitty (terminal) and Calibre (ebook manager) are two rather popular cross platform python desktop apps.
j16sdiz 2y ago
It is not. Link to previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14958989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14958989 > https://golang.org/doc/faq#What_is_the_purpose_of_the_projec https://golang.org/doc/faq#What_is_the_purpose_of_the_projec...: "By its design, Go proposes an approach for the construction of system software on multicore machines." > That page points to https://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article https://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article for "A much more expansive answer to this question". That article states: > "Go is a programming language designed by Google to help solve Google's problems [...] More than most general-purpose programming languages, Go was designed to address a set of software engineering issues that we had been exposed to in the construction of large server software."

pjmlp 2y ago

In an alternative timeline, had Rust 1.0 been available when Docker pivoted away from Python into Go, and Kubernetes from Java into Go, due to having Go folks pushing for the rewrite, and most likely they would have been taken by RIIR instead, nowadays spreading across Python and JavaScript ecosystem, including rewriting tools originally written in Go.

cyberax 2y ago
Nope. Rust is not a good tool for servers. It's downright terrible, in fact. Goroutines help _a_ _lot_ with concurrency.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  Go tell that to Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft.

dlisboa 2y ago

> Unless your definition of 'general purpose' specifically excludes anything UI-related, like on desktop, web or mobile, or AI-related. By that definition no language is general purpose. There is no language today that excels in GUI (desktop/mobile), web development, AI, cloud infrastructure, and all the other stuff like systems, embedded...And all at the same time. For instance I have never seen or heard of a successful Python desktop app (or mobile for that matter).

pkilgore 2y ago
I think the whole argument here is silly, but I do know kitty (terminal) and Calibre (ebook manager) are two rather popular cross platform python desktop apps.

j16sdiz 2y ago

It is not. Link to previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14958989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14958989 > https://golang.org/doc/faq#What_is_the_purpose_of_the_projec https://golang.org/doc/faq#What_is_the_purpose_of_the_projec...: "By its design, Go proposes an approach for the construction of system software on multicore machines." > That page points to https://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article https://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article for "A much more expansive answer to this question". That article states: > "Go is a programming language designed by Google to help solve Google's problems [...] More than most general-purpose programming languages, Go was designed to address a set of software engineering issues that we had been exposed to in the construction of large server software."