Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

For people of Pike's generation, "systems programming" means, roughly, the OS plus the utilities that would come with an OS. Well, Go may not be useful for writing the OS, but for the OS-level utilities, it works just fine.


Has it found success in OS-level utilities? What popular utilities are written in Go?


Not sure these are really popular, but I cannot resist advertising a few utilities written in Go that I regularly use in my daily workflow:

- gdu: a NCDU clone, much faster on SSD mounts [1]

- duf: a `df` clone with a nicer interface [2]

- massren: a `vidir` clone (simpler to use but with fewer options) [3]

- gotop: a `top` clone [4]

- micro: a nice TUI editor [5]

Building this kind of tools in Go makes sense, as the executables are statically compiled and are thus easy to install on remote servers.

[1]: https://github.com/dundee/gdu

[2]: https://github.com/muesli/duf

[3]: https://github.com/laurent22/massren

[4]: https://github.com/xxxserxxx/gotop

[5]: https://github.com/zyedidia/micro


Not sure what should be counted as OS-level.

Is docker cli and OS level? What about lazygit? chezmoi? dive? fzf?

Actually many popular utilities are written in Go


Docker and Podman.


Being self hosted?

Gokrazy userspace?

gVisor?




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2026 batch! Applications are open till July 27.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: