I’m a fan of Rust. Discovered it in mid 2020 and am loving every piece of it. It does have its warts (e.g. incomplete async story) but what language doesn’t? In particular I like its chatty compiler — lots of d’oh mistakes are caught while the code is still fresh in my mind for example. I also like reading blog posts about Rust; currently going through this: https://fasterthanli.me/articles/some-mistakes-rust-doesnt-c...
We use sqx: https://github.com/launchbadge/sqlx. The devs create and commit the up/down migration files and the cicd runner runs the migrations against the db.
I recommend giving Actix Web a try, was able to use the knowledge of Python Flask to build it. Rust has sum types which makes development much nicer especially with all the inevitable business logic that is associated with backend web dev.
I don't think the choice of language/framework matters too much in the grand scheme of things provided you understand the concepts behind the decisions that languages/frameworks make for you. So pick whichever piques your interest.
As far as job prospects, my bet is on Rust/Actix. I'm pitching the idea of creating new micro-services with Actix to my company. (We're a Java shop). I implemented a simple proof-of-concept api server that takes in a single type of request, runs some business logic, makes a db call and returns a response with additional fields. Preliminary testing has shown that the Rust/Actix implementation is 5x faster at processing requests compared to the Java/Spring implementation.
I'm in a similar boat to op. I love my MacBook Pro (and other apple products) but after the Apple debacle, I've decided to go back to Fedora.
I'm building my own custom 16 core 64GB 7000MB/s NVMe workstation but if I were looking for a laptop, I'd consider the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9. I found out about it through the Fedora Magazine website. Interesting thing about the laptop is that you can order it with retina screen. Just choose 3840 x 2400 14" option. The laptop comes preinstalled with Fedora so you know it's Linux friendly at the least.
For live help I highly recommend Discord servers. I’m a member of the Rust Community Server and love hanging out and helping however I can. As others have mentioned you can join the Go discord server. If you don’t know how a Discord server can help you, watch this (it’s Python specific but applies to any programming Discord server)
Please keep in mind that there is more to software dev than web programming. Rust may not be popular as as server language now and never may be, but there are multitudes of other reasons why one should consider learning Rust.
I would say it depends. Rust aims to solve perennial issues in software development by bringing as many issues “forward” in the development cycle. The way I think about the tradeoffs personally is that Rust is more "durable" than other languages. Its more rigorous type system and compile-time checks pushes more of your failure case discovery early into the development cycle while you're still getting it to compile, as opposed to runtime testing and debugging. There's less followup patching and bugs to discover because Rust usually makes you handle them up-front - particularly if you embrace the type system.
I’ve been using Actix-Web for the backend and Seed-rs for the frontend and it’s been a blast. One language to run on the server and in the browser. I admit I still have to write scss and know html but that’s no biggie. Biggest pro for using Rust, no more json! I use message pack with compact representation and my data just zips from my webapp to my server without a hitch. Not having to wonder if a field is potentially null in some deeply nested object is a magical feeling.