On April 4, 2025, the Rust language team shared a survey to help shape the future of Rust in 2025. The first question made me want to look back at how I discovered Rust.

Arrival in Florence for Rust Lab 2024

fn main() {
  println!("Ready to dive into Rust ?");
}

2017: Failure

I first tried Rust during a 2-day hackathon. We were building a small backend HTTP API to process images and create videos. I didn’t prepare at all (didn’t read the Rust Book, didn’t learn the basics). It didn’t go well. We quickly switched back to Java.

The IDE support (JetBrains) was not good compared to what I used in Java. But we liked how easy it was to compile a Windows program from Linux. I felt lost with all the types in the standard library, and the documentation felt a bit too dense and hard to follow.

Conclusion: I knew I could like Rust, but the tools weren’t ready—and neither was I ;-)

2022: Learning Alone

In 2022, I felt Rust was more mature. I liked its promise: performance and good design. People were starting to talk more about it online. I hoped to find in Rust what I missed in C#: strong types that prevent mistakes, clear type definitions, and good support for functional programming.

I really enjoyed learning by reading the book.

2023: Group Learning

We started a meetup called "Les Crustaces Lozériennes !" so developers around me could learn Rust and get better at programming in general.

The group is still active in 2025. We meet every week. I’ve read the Rust Book three times. Learning together is very helpful. We take the time to understand each part. The Rust Book is great for learning—it’s clear and easy to follow, which makes it fun to use in a group.

2024/2025: Rust Projects in Use

thor cli to manage DevOps work at Synergee (built with Rust for safety and reliability)
Jamin project (a SaaS tool to help plan film festivals): CLI and backend API in Rust (axum)
Other small projects, including a game using Bevy
Open source contributions: rio, bar
Met a great community at Rust Lab 2024 in Florence. 😉 Serhiy Barhamon

What I Think of Rust

Using Rust is smooth and enjoyable (once you learn the basics):

It feels like writing code that clearly shows what it does. No hidden behavior ⇒ that’s great.
Creating things in Rust feels smooth.
Sometimes, the compiler shows confusing errors that break your rhythm. But once you understand them, it becomes smooth again. These errors are often about missing traits, for example with Bevy systems or Axum handlers and the Send trait.
The tools and IDEs are nice (Rust Rover, Zed). Cargo and Rustfmt are very helpful. Debugging and profiling could be better.
It's very satisfying to build something that does exactly what you want, in a fast and clear way.
It’s easy and fast to fix bugs and improve code in my Rust projects.
When it compiles, it works. The apps run fast and smoothly 🙏

Screenshot of the "jamin" web app

HTTP request response time ~ 5ms

Downsides

It’s important to write Rust code that others can read easily. Avoid deep nesting by splitting code into smaller functions.
I miss being able to return early in functions by removing types. That helped make the code easier to read in TypeScript. I wish Rust allowed this.
Compilation is slow, even if incremental builds help a lot.
Debugging could be better, especially for async code.

2025: Final Thoughts and Goals

I want to grow and promote the Crustaces Lozériennes !" group
I want to write more Rust
I want to go to another Rust conference

And you? What’s your Rust experience?

If you want to work on Rust projects or talk about software, feel free to reach out: augustin.gjini@pm.me