Apparently the creators meant infrastructure like web servers, and database servers.

There is some argument that using systems programming the way it is used today is a relatively modern convention. Here is a hacker news thread where this is discussed a bit

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7009563

The "systems" in "systems programming" can also be interpreted to refer to Google's systems. After all, Go was designed to solve Google problems in a Google environment. That's how I always understood it.

In CS speak that is actually known as "distributed systems", not "systems programming".

In modern CS speak yes, but the creators of Go were apparently referring to infrastructure types of programs; web servers, database servers etc...

Here's a quote from the announcement talk

"And it's a systems language in the sense that we intend it to be used to write things like web servers"

If it has servers in the name it is distributed computing.

How modern is modern CS?

I took my CS degree around 20 years ago with focus on computer architecture, compiler design and distributed systems.

Distributed systems literature used in the degree went back to the early UNIX days.

>How modern is modern CS?

The creators of Go were on the team that built UNIX, and they clearly have a different meaning for the word systems.

They were using it to refer to infrastructure, without making a distinction whether it was distributed or local. Something like a compiler would be "systems" program under this definition.

I agree that distributed systems, and systems programming are generally accepted terms of the art in CS now, and even 20 years ago.

Ah, than makes sense.