Like any other language, there're some pros and cons with Go. For example, C gives you complete control at a very low level, but can make higher-order operations more complex. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Python removes a lot of that friction at the cost of doing more things behind the scene, which obviously affects performance. I regard Go as somewhat in-between -- it provides you with some of the lower level constructs (like pointers) but also reduces complexity (by giving you goroutines, for example).

Specifically about garbage collection, I'd recommend taking a look at what's coming up in 1.4:

https://docs.google.com/a/stripe.com/document/d/16Y4IsnNRCN4...