_content/blog/6years.md - website - Git at Google

 ---
 title: Six years of Go
 date: 2015-11-10
 by:
 - Andrew Gerrand
 summary: Happy 6th birthday, Go!
 ---


 Six years ago today the Go language was released as an open source project.
 Since then, more than 780 contributors have made over 30,000 commits to the
 project's 22 repositories. The ecosystem continues to grow, with GitHub
 reporting more than 90,000 Go repositories. And, offline, we see new Go events
 and user groups pop up [around](/blog/gophercon2015)
 [the](/blog/gouk15)
 [world](/blog/gopherchina) with regularity.

 {{image "6years/6years-gopher.png"}}

 In August we [released Go 1.5](/blog/go1.5), the most
 significant release since Go 1. It features a completely
 [redesigned garbage collector](/doc/go1.5#gc) that makes
 the language more suitable for latency-sensitive applications; it marks the
 transition from a C-based compiler tool chain to one
 [written entirely in Go](/doc/go1.5#c); and it includes
 ports to [new architectures](/doc/go1.5#ports), with better
 support for ARM processors (the chips that power most smartphones).
 These improvements make Go better suited to a broader range of tasks, a trend
 that we hope will continue over the coming years.

 Improvements to tools continue to boost developer productivity.
 We introduced the [execution tracer](/cmd/trace/) and the
 "[go doc](/cmd/go/#hdr-Show_documentation_for_package_or_symbol)"
 command, as well as more enhancements to our various
 [static analysis tools](/talks/2014/static-analysis.slide).
 We are also working on an
 [official Go plugin for Sublime Text](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/Golang-nuts/8oCSjAiKXUQ),
 with better support for other editors in the pipeline.

 Early next year we will release more improvements in Go 1.6, including
 HTTP/2 support for [net/http](/pkg/net/http/) servers and
 clients, an official package vendoring mechanism, support for blocks in text
 and HTML templates, a memory sanitizer that checks both Go and C/C++ code, and
 the usual assortment of other improvements and fixes.

 This is the sixth time we have had the pleasure of writing a birthday blog post
 for Go, and we would not be doing so if not for the wonderful and passionate
 people in our community. The Go team would like to thank everyone who has
 contributed code, written an open source library, authored a blog post, helped
 a new gopher, or just given Go a try. Without you, Go would not be as complete,
 useful, or successful as it is today. Thank you, and celebrate!
	---
	title: Six years of Go
	date: 2015-11-10
	by:
	- Andrew Gerrand
	summary: Happy 6th birthday, Go!
	---


	Six years ago today the Go language was released as an open source project.
	Since then, more than 780 contributors have made over 30,000 commits to the
	project's 22 repositories. The ecosystem continues to grow, with GitHub
	reporting more than 90,000 Go repositories. And, offline, we see new Go events
	and user groups pop up [around](/blog/gophercon2015)
	[the](/blog/gouk15)
	[world](/blog/gopherchina) with regularity.

	{{image "6years/6years-gopher.png"}}

	In August we [released Go 1.5](/blog/go1.5), the most
	significant release since Go 1. It features a completely
	[redesigned garbage collector](/doc/go1.5#gc) that makes
	the language more suitable for latency-sensitive applications; it marks the
	transition from a C-based compiler tool chain to one
	[written entirely in Go](/doc/go1.5#c); and it includes
	ports to [new architectures](/doc/go1.5#ports), with better
	support for ARM processors (the chips that power most smartphones).
	These improvements make Go better suited to a broader range of tasks, a trend
	that we hope will continue over the coming years.

	Improvements to tools continue to boost developer productivity.
	We introduced the [execution tracer](/cmd/trace/) and the
	"[go doc](/cmd/go/#hdr-Show_documentation_for_package_or_symbol)"
	command, as well as more enhancements to our various
	[static analysis tools](/talks/2014/static-analysis.slide).
	We are also working on an
	[official Go plugin for Sublime Text](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/Golang-nuts/8oCSjAiKXUQ),
	with better support for other editors in the pipeline.

	Early next year we will release more improvements in Go 1.6, including
	HTTP/2 support for [net/http](/pkg/net/http/) servers and
	clients, an official package vendoring mechanism, support for blocks in text
	and HTML templates, a memory sanitizer that checks both Go and C/C++ code, and
	the usual assortment of other improvements and fixes.

	This is the sixth time we have had the pleasure of writing a birthday blog post
	for Go, and we would not be doing so if not for the wonderful and passionate
	people in our community. The Go team would like to thank everyone who has
	contributed code, written an open source library, authored a blog post, helped
	a new gopher, or just given Go a try. Without you, Go would not be as complete,
	useful, or successful as it is today. Thank you, and celebrate!