Dayvi Schuster 7 min read Saturday, September 20, 2025 Are We Chasing Language Hype Over Solving Real Problems? The Allure of New Languages vs. The Necessity of Problem-Solving
Intro
As you may have heard or seen, there is a bit of controversy around Ubuntu adopting a rewritten version of GNU Core Utils in Rust. This has sparked a lot of debate in the tech community. This decision by Canonical got me thinking about this whole trend or push of rewriting existing software in Rust which seems to be happening a lot lately.
To put it bluntly I was confused by the need to replace GNU Core Utils with a new implementation as GNU Core Utils has been around since arguably the 90s and more realistically 2000s and it has been battle tested and proven to be reliable, efficient, effective and most importantly secure as it had basically never had any major security vulnerabilities in its entire existence. So why then would we deem it necessary to replace it with a new implementation in Rust? Why would anyone go through the trouble of rewriting something that already works perfectly fine and has been doing so for decades? When the end result at best is going to be a tool that does the same thing as the original and in the very best case scenario offer the same performance?
What bothers me even more is the bigger pattern this points to. Are we as developers more interested in chasing new languages and frameworks than actually solving real problems? I strongly subscribe to the idea that software development 60% problem solving and 40% creative exploration and innovation. But lately it feels like the balance is shifting more and more towards the latter. We seem to be more interested in trying out the latest and greatest languages and frameworks than actually solving real problems.
The Hype of New Languages and Shiny Object Syndrome
We’ve all been there in the past haven’t we? Getting excited about a new programming language or framework that promises to solve all our problems and make our lives easier. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype and want to try out the latest and greatest technology, but it’s important to remember that just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s better. We need to be careful not to fall into the trap of “shiny object syndrome” where we chase after the latest trends without considering whether they actually solve our problems or improve our workflows. It’s important to evaluate new technologies based on their merits and how they fit into our existing systems and workflows, rather than simply jumping on the bandwagon because everyone else is doing it.
Now for the important question:
Do I think the developers of coreutils-rs are doing this just because Rust is the new hotness?
Short and simple: No, no I do not. I believe they have good intentions and are likely trying to improve upon the existing implementation in some way. However, I do not agree with them that there is a need for a rewritten version of GNU Core Utils in Rust. I also do not agree that GNU Core Utils is inherently insecure or unsafe.
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