Brief - The Hustle

The rise of Rust, the programming language going viral

Written by Rob Litterst | Nov 7, 2022 8:54:26 AM

In the world of programming, languages can start holy wars.

Established languages like JavaScript and Python have been staples of the tech world for decades — but Rust, a programming language that began as a side project at Mozilla in 2010, is gaining steam, per Wired.

Why Rust?

There are two reasons it’s blowing up right now:

  • Security: Rust makes it impossible for programmers to add memory-safety bugs to their code, which account for ~70% of security vulnerabilities.
  • Performance: While Rust isn’t the only “memory-safe” language out there, its advocates say it’s faster than other ones, like Java.

These traits, combined with a growing community, have earned the language rave reviews.

In June, Rust won the title of most loved language on Stack Overflow for the seventh year in a row, with 87% of users saying they want to continue using it.

It’s not just developers

Some of the biggest players in tech have made big bets on Rust as well:

  • Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have been using Rust since 2019, and even partnered with Mozilla and Huawei to create the Rust Foundation, a nonprofit to grow the language.

Of course, no language is perfect, and Rust has its downsides — including a longer learning curve than other languages — but its champions argue the trade-off is worth it.

BTW, to find out what your programming language says about you, this post compares programming languages to zodiac signs.