Rust for C#/.NET Developers
This guide introduces Rust concepts and syntax from the perspective of C# and .NET developers, covering ownership, borrowing, pattern matching, and error handling through familiar comparisons.
Background
- This is a free guide created by Microsoft's Rust team, aimed at developers who already know C# and the .NET ecosystem (the dominant Windows/enterprise programming platform).
- Rust is a systems programming language focused on memory safety and performance — unlike C#, it has no garbage collector and manual memory management is enforced by the compiler, making it popular for infrastructure, browsers, OS components, and cloud tooling.
- The guide assumes familiarity with .NET concepts (classes, interfaces, async/await, LINQ, garbage collection) and maps them to Rust equivalents (ownership, traits, async, iterators, the borrow checker). It helps .NET developers transfer their existing knowledge rather than starting from scratch.
- The context that makes this notable: Microsoft has historically been a .NET-first company, but in recent years has embraced Rust for foundational work inside Azure, Windows kernel components, and security-critical tooling — partly as a response to memory-safety vulnerabilities that plague C and C++ code. This guide is a sign of that strategic shift.