While true, I think the rise of Linux and FOSS, alongside embedded development helped C stay around.
On Mac OS, Windows, Symbian, BeOS, even commercial UNIX with CORBA and Motif OO libraries, developers were already transitioning from C to C++ when Linux and FOSS, which depend heavily on C, started to gain adoption.
Then you have the embedded space, specially with micro-controlers, where even packing C into the EPROM is already an exercise.
As for C++, the new standards rely reinvigorated it, with Apple, Google and Microsoft pushing it forward.
One of the reasons I updated to Windows 8 (now on W10) was to be able to use C++/CX with XAML. Visual C++ finally catched up with C++ Builder in terms of RAD experience.
This where I see Rust still needs to grow. There are lots of use cases where Rust still does not provide an out-of-the-box solution vs C++ tooling does.
On Mac OS, Windows, Symbian, BeOS, even commercial UNIX with CORBA and Motif OO libraries, developers were already transitioning from C to C++ when Linux and FOSS, which depend heavily on C, started to gain adoption.
Then you have the embedded space, specially with micro-controlers, where even packing C into the EPROM is already an exercise.
As for C++, the new standards rely reinvigorated it, with Apple, Google and Microsoft pushing it forward.
One of the reasons I updated to Windows 8 (now on W10) was to be able to use C++/CX with XAML. Visual C++ finally catched up with C++ Builder in terms of RAD experience.
This where I see Rust still needs to grow. There are lots of use cases where Rust still does not provide an out-of-the-box solution vs C++ tooling does.