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Comment by anonymous908213 | Hacker News Reader

Python, Java, and JS are all implemented in C/++. C++ is an extension of C. Taken strictly, sure, not everyone is literally writing C. But C powers everything. It is still the systems language of the world, that is the foundation of all of our systems, including both embedded and phone/PC OSes. Then there's a bit of COBOL and Fortran for mainframes, Ada for military hardware, and a whole notta Rust anywhere.

Think about what Rust software people actually use. Codex CLI, uv, ripgrep, and what else? That's three pieces of software, all development tools for development nerds. Normal people aren't engaging with any of this stuff. Your metaphorical grandma has never used software written with Rust in her life.

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Cobol powers the world's money and international travel. Not sure how that matters.

> Think about what Rust software people actually use

More and more Chrome, Google, Android, Cloudflare, Prime Video, and phone basebands, parts of Linux kernel, and many other things.

Normal users literally use those all day every day.

Are they 100% Rust? Of course not (well, I don't actually know if some phone basebands are, by now. Naturally very closed source). But they're not 100% another-language either.

If C disappeared from the world, the world would stop, yes. Same with Cobol. Same with Java. Same with C++. Same with assembly.

If I were to guess (completely without basis for my guess) about the number of lines of code that normal users exercise in a normal day (counting each line just once), my bet would be on Java or JS.

Would the Java be able to run without the C code? No. But normal users would not be able to do anything if only C was left. And all banks would be gone.

And in any case C would not be able to do anything without transistors.

There's RustPython and far more compatible than IronPython back in the day. C++ is NOT an extension of C, they diverged a lot.

>Codex CLI, uv, ripgrep, and what else?

RustDesk, Servo/Firefox, tons of gtk4-rs on Gnome and extra tools, Librsvg, CosmicDE (Fedora Atomic with Cosmic can be slightly faster than vanilla Gnome Silverblue), Ruffle, Gopher64, ArtCraft (both the vibecodec cr*p and the AI powered magical multimedia IDE doing crazy stuff which is fine).

Oh, and Harper to sharp your English skills:

https://github.com/automattic/harper

IronCalc looks better than LO Calc performance wise:

https://github.com/ironcalc/ironCalc

Gnome might be a Rust domain tomorrow and nobody would bat an eye. Fedora/RH/IBM can rewrite the Anaconda installer in Rust in no time.

Rust is in use in more places than you may expect. Does the hypothetical grandma use Windows' kernel? Android? Firefox? Chrome?

1% of code in some obscure module that's barely used being written in Rust does not give one claim to those things being written in Rust. Even Firefox is only 10% Rust despite the language being designed by Mozilla, and they abandoned their project to write a new browser engine in Rust.

What is your point?

I pointed to a jetbrains study, and then there's a stackoverflow survey[1] showing C neck and neck with PHP at 11th place among professional developers.

We all know there's lots of important C code out there. I don't see anyone going "RIIR!!!" in this thread.

But obviously yes, the 11th place language will have MANY programmers working on it. Not as many as JS by far. But many. In that survey Go is just after PHP. There are also many many Go programmers.

We are not yet at risk of running out of C programmers, like the Cobol situation. Nor do I want us to.[2]

But what point are you trying to make by so strongly defending C and the comment "grownups with important jobs write C"?

[1] https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology#most-popular... [2] relevant comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187384

The point I am trying to make is that C is a production language and Rust is not a production language, so the original comment is pretty much correct if you take adults with jobs to mean writing software used in production. People use JS, your JS engine is written in C++, running in a browser written in C++, running on an OS written in C/++. Whatever higher-level language you use, it's powered by C/++. Your game engines are written in C/++. Your fucking car is written in C. It's not even an argument about what is better or what people should use or anything like that. It's just acknowledging reality. You're talking about how "writing new C in 2026 is misconduct" like it's a relic of a bygone era when in actuality the world around you is a world written entirely in C with, rounded to a whole percent, literally 0% of the software anyone uses being written in Rust.

> Rust is not a production language because so much legacy code

You must not exist, because, rounded to a whole percent, literally 0% of the lives of people in the world are directly affected by you personally

> Rust is not a production language

Your argument was that the only Rust projects there are are little developer tools, so Rust isn't a production language. When pointed out there are large projects that every day users rely on that use Rust, and not just in corners of the codebase, code that's exercised by approximately all users, you insist it's still not production?

In less than a year tons of Chromium features will be Rust based.

Even big bases as FFMPEG will be ported to Rust, as the porters' repos already use Rust's cc to compile ASM code.

And of course Qemu will be almost a mandatory candidate for obvious reasons.

For instance, quick and dirty SGI Irix emulator:

https://github.com/techomancer/iris

You have a point but it's just hyperbole in the other direction. Yes, Rust is only a small fraction of the code in use every day, but it has nonetheless achieved deep penetration into critical infrastructure.

Cloudflare's network routing code is predominantly Rust. Massive parts of AWS and Azure are Rust (including crown jewels like S3 and Lambda). Multiple car manufacturers have shipping Rust code in their production cars for years, albeit yes it's a slow process intoroducing it into regulated industries. Airbus and Boeing are putting up job openings for Rust development. As mentioned critical pieces of Windows and Android are now written in Rust. If you use Discord - that's Rust. If you use Amazon Prime Video or Disney+, that's Rust. I could go on.

When like 40% of internet traffic and 75% of end user devices are using Rust in some capacity, to say that it's "not production" is just ignorant, arrogant nonsense.

Most things in the world are not made of zinc. But to therefore say that we live in a world without zinc in production is not a correct conclusion (https://youtu.be/jWpPrWHBHcQ).

> running in a browser written in C++

As other have pointed out, that browser would not render fonts without Rust. You use your browser without fonts? I mean, it's not impossible. Some people navigate the web using screen readers.

> running on an OS written in C/++

Except the parts that are written in Rust or other languages, sure.

So tautologically, the parts that are not written in other languages, are written in C and C++. That's technically correct, the best kind of correct.

> Whatever higher-level language you use, it's powered by C/++

"Powered by" in that it runs on an OS written in C, assembly, and C++, sure. Still not relevant. Languages tend to want to "self-host".

> Your game engines are written in C/++

Well, most gaming hours in the world are probably spent on games written in C#, Java, Kotlin, Swift, and Objective-C. And JS.

JetBrains 2025 study has 40% of game development as C#. C++ just 29%.

AAA games, sure. But it's understatement of the year to say that because AAA games are written in C++ that means it's the only production language.

> Your fucking car is written in C

I think you're stuck in the past. This is no longer a categorically true statement.

The world changes. It used to be a true statement that "americans don't even have passports". In 1989 only 3% had passports, and the world could mock that figure. Today it's 48% and rising.

Just like you should no longer say "americans don't even have passports", because while the percentage may not be a record, it's no longer true, you should stop saying other things when they are no longer true.

> literally 0% of the software anyone uses being written in Rust.

As I have others have repeatedly proved to you, this is literally (actual literally, not as a rhetorical device) false.

I guess you could live in a world with 0% Rust. Your car is old, your Linux kernel was compiled to exclude Rust parts (not sure this is possible. Haven't checked), and you don't run anything Chromium-based, or Firefox. And you don't own an Android phone.

But you saying (asserting without evidence) that it's only minor systems in these omnipresent systems that use Rust, then… uh… what's your point? In a car, if C controls fuel injection and Rust controls the power steering, does that "not count", and you'd still claim "literally 0%"?

But… like, if you have an iPhone instead, do you think it doesn't run anything Objective-C or Swift?

I think it's accurate enough to say that "Cloudflare runs on Rust".

You think you, and normal people, never use Cloudflare? Cloudflare hosts like a a quarter of web traffic.

A quarter of web traffic runs on Rust. In production. Right now.

> You're talking about how "writing new C in 2026 is misconduct" like it's a relic of a bygone era

Just like with Cobol, in an existing system it does have its place for extending existing code.

But that "new" is key.

> world around you is a world written entirely in C

Entirely? No. Nobody's saying there's no C code in existence. I don't know why you care to defend against that imagined claim.

> rounded to a whole percent, literally 0% of the software anyone uses being written in Rust.

Does it matter, if (say for example) your pacemaker or car ignition runs Rust?

Come back, zinc, come back.

It's not "some obscure module" that is written in Rust. Just some examples I know of:

- Chrome currently uses https://github.com/googlefonts/fontations to implement its font handling, and text is the main thing on most web pages.

- Windows' DirectWriteCore for font handling is also now written in Rust.

- Firefox's whole CSS engine and GPU 2D rendering engine are written in Rust.

I doubt it, Rust developers compete only with crossfit and vegans in the race to be noticed.

You.. doubt that people use Firefox, Chrome, Windows, or Android? That it must be "attention" that's the reason those projects have Rust in them now?

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