{
  "id": "rust",
  "name": "Rust",
  "appeared": 2010,
  "creators": [
    "Graydon Hoare"
  ],
  "org": "Rust Foundation",
  "type": "systems",
  "status": "alive",
  "tagline": "Memory-safe systems programming without a garbage collector.",
  "born_from": "Graydon Hoare started Rust as a personal project in 2006 after yet another memory-safety crash, this time in the elevator software of his apartment building. Mozilla picked it up in 2009 because Firefox was written in C++ and memory bugs in C++ were the main source of its security holes, while garbage-collected languages were too slow for a browser engine.",
  "reacts_to": [
    "cpp",
    "cyclone",
    "ocaml",
    "haskell",
    "erlang"
  ],
  "tradeoffs": {
    "memory": "ownership",
    "types": "static",
    "run": "native",
    "concurrency": [
      "threads",
      "async"
    ],
    "cost": "Slow compiles and a learning curve measured in weeks, because the borrow checker refuses programs that other languages accept."
  },
  "slots": [
    {
      "slot": "systems",
      "fit": "strong"
    },
    {
      "slot": "server",
      "fit": "strong"
    },
    {
      "slot": "cli",
      "fit": "strong"
    },
    {
      "slot": "wasm",
      "fit": "strong",
      "note": "The most used language for WebAssembly outside the browser."
    },
    {
      "slot": "embedded",
      "fit": "strong"
    },
    {
      "slot": "games",
      "fit": "ok",
      "note": "Engines exist (Bevy), studios still ship C++."
    },
    {
      "slot": "data",
      "fit": "ok",
      "note": "Mostly as the fast core under Python tools (Polars, Ruff)."
    },
    {
      "slot": "mobile",
      "fit": "weak"
    },
    {
      "slot": "browser",
      "fit": "none",
      "note": "Only through WebAssembly, not as a browser language."
    }
  ],
  "won_where": [
    {
      "what": "Linux kernel accepted Rust as a second language in 6.1",
      "source": "https://lwn.net/Articles/910762/"
    },
    {
      "what": "Android, where new native code in Rust cut memory-safety bugs",
      "source": "https://security.googleblog.com/2022/12/memory-safe-languages-in-android-13.html"
    },
    {
      "what": "Firefox Quantum shipped the Stylo CSS engine written in Rust",
      "source": "https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/11/entering-the-quantum-era-how-firefox-got-fast-again-and-where-its-going-to-get-faster/"
    },
    {
      "what": "AWS Firecracker, the microVM behind Lambda and Fargate",
      "source": "https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/firecracker-lightweight-virtualization-for-serverless-computing/"
    },
    {
      "what": "Cloudflare replaced NGINX with Pingora, serving over a trillion requests a day",
      "source": "https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-we-built-pingora-the-proxy-that-connects-cloudflare-to-the-internet/"
    }
  ],
  "alternatives": [
    "zig",
    "cpp",
    "go",
    "c"
  ],
  "timeline": [
    {
      "year": 2006,
      "what": "Graydon Hoare begins Rust as a side project",
      "source": "https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/14/1067869/rust-worlds-fastest-growing-programming-language/"
    },
    {
      "year": 2009,
      "what": "Mozilla starts sponsoring the project",
      "source": "https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/14/1067869/rust-worlds-fastest-growing-programming-language/"
    },
    {
      "year": 2010,
      "what": "Rust announced publicly at the Mozilla Annual Summit",
      "source": "https://venge.net/graydon/talks/intro-talk-2.pdf"
    },
    {
      "year": 2015,
      "what": "Rust 1.0 with the stability promise",
      "source": "https://blog.rust-lang.org/2015/05/15/Rust-1.0.html"
    },
    {
      "year": 2017,
      "what": "Firefox 57 ships Stylo, the first large Rust component in a mass-market product",
      "source": "https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/11/entering-the-quantum-era-how-firefox-got-fast-again-and-where-its-going-to-get-faster/"
    },
    {
      "year": 2021,
      "what": "Rust Foundation founded by AWS, Google, Huawei, Microsoft and Mozilla",
      "source": "https://foundation.rust-lang.org/news/2021-02-08-hello-world/"
    },
    {
      "year": 2022,
      "what": "Linux 6.1 merges initial Rust support",
      "source": "https://lwn.net/Articles/910762/"
    },
    {
      "year": 2024,
      "what": "The White House ONCD report urges moving to memory-safe languages and names Rust",
      "source": "https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/oncd/briefing-room/2024/02/26/press-release-technical-report/"
    }
  ],
  "hardware": {
    "gpu": "via-libraries",
    "twelve_dollar_users": 264000,
    "multicore_users": 130000,
    "source": "https://github.com/arjaythedev/twelve-dollar-server-challenge/blob/main/LEADERBOARD.md",
    "measured": "2026-10-29"
  },
  "links": {
    "website": "https://www.rust-lang.org",
    "repo": "https://github.com/rust-lang/rust",
    "wikipedia": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language)",
    "docs": "https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/"
  },
  "pldb": "rust",
  "sources": [
    "https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/14/1067869/rust-worlds-fastest-growing-programming-language/",
    "https://blog.rust-lang.org/2015/05/15/Rust-1.0.html",
    "https://lwn.net/Articles/910762/",
    "https://security.googleblog.com/2022/12/memory-safe-languages-in-android-13.html",
    "https://venge.net/graydon/talks/intro-talk-2.pdf",
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language)"
  ],
  "verified": false,
  "last_reviewed": "2026-10-30",
  "prose": "## Why it exists\n\nIn 2006 Graydon Hoare, then a Mozilla engineer, came home to a broken elevator. The cause was a memory bug in its control software, the kind of crash he had spent years chasing in C and C++. He started a language in which that class of bug would not compile ([MIT Technology Review](https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/14/1067869/rust-worlds-fastest-growing-programming-language/)). Mozilla had the same problem at a larger scale: Firefox was millions of lines of C++, and memory-safety bugs were the main source of its security holes. Garbage-collected languages fixed that but were too slow and too unpredictable for a browser engine. Mozilla began sponsoring Rust in 2009 and announced it in 2010 ([Hoare's intro talk](https://venge.net/graydon/talks/intro-talk-2.pdf)).\n\n## What it trades away\n\nRust gets memory safety without a garbage collector by making the compiler track who owns every value and for how long. That is the ownership and borrowing system, and it is the cost: the borrow checker rejects many programs that would be fine in C++, and learning to write code it accepts takes weeks, not days. Compile times are long because the compiler does so much checking. In return you get no null-pointer crashes, no data races and C-level speed, all guaranteed at compile time rather than tested for at run time ([Rust 1.0 announcement](https://blog.rust-lang.org/2015/05/15/Rust-1.0.html)).\n\n## Where it won\n\nRust won exactly where C and C++ were causing pain. Firefox shipped its CSS engine in Rust in 2017 ([Mozilla Hacks](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/11/entering-the-quantum-era-how-firefox-got-fast-again-and-where-its-going-to-get-faster/)). Google reported that as new Android native code moved to Rust, memory-safety vulnerabilities fell from 76 % to 35 % of the total ([Google Security Blog](https://security.googleblog.com/2022/12/memory-safe-languages-in-android-13.html)). The Linux kernel accepted it as its second language in version 6.1 ([LWN](https://lwn.net/Articles/910762/)). AWS built Firecracker, the microVM under Lambda, in Rust, and Cloudflare replaced NGINX with its own Rust proxy. In 2024 a White House report told the industry to move to memory-safe languages and named Rust ([ONCD](https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/oncd/briefing-room/2024/02/26/press-release-technical-report/)).",
  "url": "https://langwhy.dev/lang/rust/",
  "markdown": "https://langwhy.dev/lang/rust.md",
  "license": "CC0-1.0"
}