You can write D without using the garbage collector, or more pragmatically disable it or have threads doing work that are not registered with the GC. Some standard library functions require the GC, but a diminishing number, and you are no worse off than writing pure C. Just stick @nogc on the relevant code and it won't compile if you use the GC by mistake. Also, D generates less garbage than some other languages when written idiomatically, as you pass structs on the stack.