In the world of software development, few languages have had as profound an impact as C and C++.
These two foundational tools have powered everything from operating systems to video games for decades. But as technology evolves, so do the demands for security, efficiency, and reliability. Enter Rust, a modern language that's gaining traction for its robust safety features. And now, Microsoft suggestively said with a bold vision that it's phasing out C and C++ entirely by 2030.
This statement sparks excitement, and also skepticism and a flurry of clarifications.
Microsoft's interest in Rust isn't new. For nearly six years, the company has been advocating for it, highlighting its "strong safety guarantees" in a 2019 blog post.
The company even created tools like the "windows-rs" GitHub repo, which provides Rust bindings for Windows APIs (Win32, COM, and WinRT), and another for Rust-based Windows drivers. This groundwork shows Microsoft is serious about integrating Rust into its ecosystem, from apps to kernel-level components.
C was born in the early 1970s at Bell Labs, created by Dennis Ritchie as an evolution of the B language.
It was designed to be a portable, efficient, and low-level programming language, making it ideal for system programming. Ritchie developed C to rewrite the Unix operating system, which was originally written in assembly language. By 1972, C had become the backbone of Unix, and its influence spread rapidly.
What makes C special is how it focuses on functions and step-by-step instructions, and gives developers direct control over hardware resources like memory. This power comes at a cost, though: manual memory management can lead to bugs like buffer overflows and memory leaks, which have been the root of countless security vulnerabilities.
Building on C's success, Bjarne Stroustrup introduced C++ in 1985 (originally called "C with Classes" in 1979). C++ extends C by adding object-oriented programming (OOP) features, such as classes, inheritance, and polymorphism, while maintaining backward compatibility.
This made it versatile for complex applications, from desktop software to high-performance games and embedded systems.
C++ powers much of the modern tech stack, including parts of Windows, web browsers like Chrome, and even Adobe Photoshop.
However, just like C, it inherits the risks of unsafe memory handling, where a single mistake can crash a program or open doors to hackers.
Together, C and C++ have dominated systems programming for over 50 years, forming the core of operating systems like Windows (where the kernel is mostly C) and countless native applications. Their efficiency and control are unmatched, but in an era of rising cyber threats, their vulnerabilities, responsible for about 70% of security issues, according to studies by Google and Microsoft, have become a liability.
And now Rust, developed by Graydon Hoare at Mozilla Research and first released in 2015, was designed to address the pitfalls of C and C++ without sacrificing performance.
It's a systems programming language that emphasizes "memory safety" through its unique ownership model and borrow checker. In simple terms, Rust enforces rules at compile time to prevent common errors like dangling pointers, data races, and use-after-free bugs. If a code violates these rules, it won't even compile.
This should save developers from runtime crashes and exploits.
And unlike C or C++, where developers might manually allocate and free memory (risking leaks or overflows), Rust automates much of this while giving them fine-grained control.
In other words, Rust is no just safer; it's also concurrent-friendly, making it great for multi-threaded applications in today's multi-core world.
Major companies like Amazon, Google, and Dropbox have adopted Rust for critical infrastructure, and even the U.S. government agencies like the NSA and CISA recommend shifting to memory-safe languages like Rust to bolster cybersecurity.
The downside is that, Rust has a steep learning curve, and that its strict rules can feel restrictive at first. But once they're mastered, the payoff is huge: fewer bugs, better security, and code that's easier to maintain in the long run.
For Microsoft, which has been hit by high-profile vulnerabilities in Windows, Rust represents a path to a more secure future.
And now, Microsoft is said to be planning to swap C and C++ in all of the company's products.
The latest buzz stems from a LinkedIn post by Galen Hunt, a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft with three decades of experience.
Hunt announced his team's goal: "to eliminate every line of C and C++ from Microsoft by 2030."
The startegy is by combining AI with advanced algorithms to rewrite the company's largest codebases. The "North Star" metric is ambitious: "1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code." To achieve this, Microsoft has developed a "powerful code processing infrastructure" that builds scalable graphs over source code and uses AI agents to make modifications at scale.
Hunt's post was tied to a job listing for a Principal Software Engineer in the Future of Scalable Software Engineering group, part of Microsoft's CoreAI organization.
The role focuses on evolving this infrastructure to translate massive C and C++ systems to Rust, demonstrating the tech's potential.
The announcement quickly went viral, raising eyebrows about rewriting the many Microsoft products, especially the ubiquitous Windows, which is primarily built in C and C++, using AI. Concerns emerged: Could AI reliably translate not just syntax but the intent of complex code? Past Windows updates have already introduced bugs, like issues with Task Manager or BitLocker, so entrusting AI with the OS seemed risky.
In response to the backlash, Hunt updated his post with key clarifications.
"Windows is NOT being rewritten in Rust with AI," he emphasized.
This is a research project aimed at building technology for large-scale language migrations, not a set strategy for Windows 11 or beyond. Rust is being used as a demonstration target, but the endpoint could be other languages. The goal is to pioneer tools that help eliminate technical debt across Microsoft and its customers, not to overhaul everything overnight.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has noted that AI already writes up to 30% of the company's code, but Hunt stressed that this project is about research, not immediate deployment.
It's part of broader efforts, like investing $10 million in Rust in 2022 and introducing Rust kernel features in Windows 11 previews.
While the full elimination of C and C++ by 2030 might sound audacious, Microsoft's codebase spans billions of lines across hundreds of products. And this move is a testament to the industry's shift toward safer languages. Rust's adoption could make Windows more secure, reducing vulnerabilities that plague legacy code.
However, relying on AI for translations raises valid questions about accuracy and edge cases.
In response to the social media backlash, the senior company figure insists that AI won't be used for the heavy lifting.
In parallel, Microsoft is modernizing Windows' UI with web-based components like WebView2 and React, which could complement Rust's backend strengths.