The fact that newer CPUs are not going up in clock speed but in number of cores means that performance can only come from effective multi-threading. Given Nim plays in the performant side of programming languages, having a competitive strategy for multi-threading is crucial to longterm success.
@Araq knows this and the fact that current GCs don't play well multi-threading is also well known. I don't see newruntime as a distraction but valuable research that will benefit everyone longterm. What I will say though is that I hope the implementation can coexist with the GC so that mostly single threaded apps can continue to have the same user experience as today. The newruntime capabilities can be reserved for the standard library and good third party libs and for anyone who wants to leverage all the power of modern CPUs. Over time, that use case will become more prevalent and the ecosystem that provides the best support and safety will go a long way.
