The Reality

Many people already know that Rust is the future and the new or improved version of a systems programming language that C or any other systems programming language could not achieve. If one who is reading this is not already aware that Rust is objectively the better choice when it comes to systems programming aside from a few small issues regarding compatibility, code compilation in some cases being slower and many other issues that could be looked into when considering using Rust or including it in a project. C and other systems programming language just cannot compete with more advanced technology and that is a fact, with this being said and out of the way I will continue with my own opinions.

Opinion on the Adoption

I think Rust is the most advanced systems programming language, a few others did come around but are still relatively new and less adopted, but overall Rust is currently the most advanced in my opinion. Rust cannot really replace C or C++ for some people and that is fine because for some projects C or C++ is a necessity or a requirement. An example would be a kernel or certain parts of the code needing to be more low-level, this is the case for the Linux kernel where Rust was adopted for certain parts of the Linux kernel codebase because Rust just made more sense there, the kernel is still mostly written in C because in a lot of cases you need low-level access or a very low-level programming language for such a barebones piece of code that is the Linux kernel which interacts with device drivers, processors, memories and the actual parts of the computer. I am not in favor of rewriting pieces of code or programs that already work in a language to Rust or anything else, if a program already works well and is maintained well by the developers who use the language, then why change it? This is not to say that Rust programs are bad, I am sure a lot of programs written 100% in Rust are great pieces of software or are good projects, but I think rewriting certain parts of the codebase just for the sake of “using Rust” or for “memory safety” is in a lot of cases foolish or outrageous and a burden for developers. I believe Rust can be used for additions where a programmer or the project itself that is being worked on needs the Rust programming language added for something like the Linux kernel for example, or maybe new pieces of code that need a systems programming language like Rust is needed, I am fine with the language there but rewriting existing software in Rust just because why not, I think it is foolish.

Conclusion

I see programming languages as tools, maybe you need a simple task to be accomplished for automation like extracting multiple zip files by running a program using Bash scripts or using a library in Python to automate a simple task, while other tasks may be more low-level or systems related such as programming drivers, creating a system shell, or maybe even writing a file system. In many cases it depends on what language you should use, I still believe however that C and Assembly are the low-level languages but they are still systems programming languages just like Rust, programming languages are not just things that can be changed easily in a project, one must pick a language and use it in his project based on what the programmer is trying to accomplish or create.