I agree that Erlang is probably the best example of proven to be robust due to use in large telecommunication systems. I would also agree that Go and Node.js ar

I agree that Erlang is probably the best example of proven to be robust due to use in large telecommunication systems. I would also agree that Go and Node.js are still infants in the game, but I'd argue that there is enough software out there to judge Go's effective speeds. - Google is using it internally, where speed is an absolute requirement - Vitess, recently open sourced (and used internally by youtube) would definitely have to be fast for the task youtube is using it for. (http://code.google.com/p/vitess/ http://code.google.com/p/vitess/) - Desktop window manager in Go that is very fast even on lower spec machines: https://github.com/BurntSushi/wingo https://github.com/BurntSushi/wingo Just my two cents. I would absolutely stay away from node.js if you are in an environment where people touching the code aren't easily accessible, since it's very easy to write javascript that only you understand. The other languages seem to punish it a bit more, while at times it feels as if javascript embraces it.