Having to recompile to add functionality that alternatives provide as dynamically loaded plugins is insane. This is 2017. Linux has had loadable kernel modules since 1995, and I worked on them for other versions of UNIX as far back as 1991. I understand that it's hard for a Go program to support plugins written in other languages using a more conventional runtime. No problem there. However, there's just no excuse for relying on recompilation instead of dynamically loading modules also written in Go and thus using the same runtime. I really want to like Go, but as long as the Go community clings to long-discredited ideas regarding things like packaging and distribution and symbol versioning I just don't feel like I can depend on it to build infrastructure that will remain robust over time.