Microsoft has formally targeted 2030 as the year to purge C and C++ from its repositories, utilizing AI agents to accelerate the migration to Rust. This initiative focuses on modernizing legacy codebases rather than mandating a manual rewrite of Windows.

With a target conversion rate of one million lines per engineer monthly, the industry is watching to see if AI tools can scale systems programming migration effectively. If successful, this could lower the barrier for memory safety across the enterprise sector.

In today’s Rust recap:

> Microsoft aims to eliminate C/C++ by 2030

> Reqwest v0.13 switches default to rustls

> Cloudflare opens source code for tokio-quiche

> Linux Kernel records first Rust-related CVE

Microsoft Targets 2030 to Replace C++ with Rust

The Recap: Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Galen Hunt sparked industry debate by announcing an ambitious goal to eliminate C and C++ code from the company's repositories by 2030, leveraging AI-driven tools to accelerate the migration to Rust.

Unpacked:

  • Hunt’s strategy relies on AI agents to handle the heavy lifting of translation, targeting a conversion rate of one million lines per engineer per month to modernize vast legacy codebases. Link

  • Following viral speculation, the company clarified that this is a research initiative focused on building scalable migration technologies rather than a mandate to manually rewrite Windows from scratch. Link

  • This move builds on existing momentum, as Microsoft has already integrated Rust into the Windows 11 kernel to secure critical components like font parsing and Win32k GDI. Link

Bottom line: Developing automated translation tools specifically for systems programming could drastically lower the barrier for enterprises looking to adopt memory-safe languages. This initiative positions Rust as the inevitable heir to C++ for secure, high-performance computing at scale.

Reqwest v0.13: The Ecosystem Shifts to Rustls

The Recap: The most popular Rust HTTP client has released version 0.13, officially swapping its default TLS backend from OpenSSL-based native-tls to the memory-safe rustls implementation.

Unpacked:

  • Maintainer Sean McArthur cites superior safety and performance as key drivers for the switch, noting that a recent survey found 93% of users already preferred rustls over the native alternative.

  • The update consolidates certificate verification options and renames ClientBuilder methods with a tls_ prefix to improve autocomplete functionality and API discovery.

  • Developers can now build smaller binaries by disabling default features, as the query() and form() methods—and their serde dependency—are now optional.

Bottom line: By aligning the default configuration with community preference, this update simplifies the developer experience while nudging the broader ecosystem toward pure-Rust cryptographic implementations. This move eliminates a common friction point for new users while validating the maturity of Rust's security primitives.

Cloudflare Open Sources 'tokio-quiche' for Async HTTP/3

The Recap: Cloudflare has open-sourced tokio-quiche, a production-grade wrapper that integrates their low-level quiche library with the Tokio runtime to simplify building high-performance asynchronous QUIC and HTTP/3 applications.

Unpacked:

  • Unlike the underlying quiche library which requires manual I/O management, this new crate handles the complex UDP plumbing and state machines automatically so you can focus on application logic. Link

  • The library arrives battle-tested, currently handling millions of requests per second for critical services like Apple iCloud Private Relay and the MASQUE tunnels that power Cloudflare's WARP client. Link

  • Its architecture utilizes an actor model where inbound packet routers and per-connection I/O workers isolate state, exposing a clean ApplicationOverQuic trait for implementing custom protocols.

Bottom line: By open-sourcing the exact code powering their massive edge network, Cloudflare provides the Rust ecosystem with a robust foundation for adopting next-generation transport protocols. This significantly lowers the barrier to entry for developers who want the performance of QUIC without the complexity of implementing their own event loops.

Linux Reality Check: First Rust Kernel CVE & Ubuntu’s Adoption

The Recap: The Linux kernel has recorded its first Rust-related security vulnerability within the Android Binder driver, a milestone that coincides with Ubuntu's aggressive push to replace core system utilities with safer alternatives in its upcoming releases.

Unpacked:

  • The specific vulnerability (CVE-2025-68260) was a race condition in the rust_binder driver that caused a denial-of-service state, stemming from a logical error inside an unsafe block rather than a failure of Rust's borrow checker. Link

  • Ubuntu is doubling down on this transition by integrating tools like uutils and sudo-rs into its 2025 releases, despite encountering early performance regressions and teething issues during the migration. Link

  • This incident serves as a critical reality check: while Rust eliminates entire classes of memory bugs, it requires developers to strictly validate logic when bridging the gap with legacy C subsystems or using unsafe primitives.

Bottom line: Adopting Rust in critical infrastructure is shifting from experimental to operational, bringing new maintenance challenges along with its security benefits. As the ecosystem matures, the focus must move beyond just compiling code to rigorously auditing the boundaries where safe and unsafe code interact.

The Shortlist

Mullvad released GotaTun, a custom Rust-based WireGuard implementation that replaces their previous Go-based solution to improve stability and eliminate crashes on Android devices.

Gust introduced an experimental Swift package manager written in Rust, leveraging advanced linking algorithms to achieve significantly faster installation times and lower disk usage compared to the standard SwiftPM.

GNOME revealed end-of-year code statistics showing that Rust usage has grown to over 10% of Core applications and nearly 42% of Circle apps, signaling a major shift away from C for modern Linux desktop development.

Rust-analyzer updated its language server capabilities with stabilized type mismatch diagnostics and new macro segment completion, further refining the IDE experience for developers.

Hurry debuted as a drop-in replacement for Cargo, designed to accelerate local development workflows by automatically caching dependencies without requiring complex configuration changes.