To say that channels is the answer to fixing select() ignores the fact that Go doesn't support non-blocking I/O at all. select{} only works on channels, and I/O operations are always blocking.
It seems like a bit of a missed opportunity to not let file descriptors and other data structures support select{}, much like they decided not to let "range" work for anything except built-ins. To wait on multiple sockets, you have to start a goroutine per socket and communicate via channels, even if all you want to do is service one event at a time. That's fine, it's Go's way. What I'm less happy about is that because of this design, you can't ever interrupt a blocking operation — reads in particular — other than by closing the file descriptor. That's why SetReadDeadline has to exist, to at least let you set a timeout.
[1] https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2012/06/less-is-exponenti...