Starting my running routine again. I know it’s not tech based, but that’s what I’m working on.

Not a beginner, I've been doing software development in one way or another for about 10 years. You're right though, Go syntax is definitely easier to pick up. For Rust, part of my issue when writing it is getting myself away from the way C/C++ uses pointers and references. The borrow checker doesn't work the same way, but uses the same keyboard symbols (* and &) to do very similar but also different things.

I didn't realize you could use Bitcoin to pay, but it's good to know. I also have the original launch keyboard from them, and am looking to get a launch heavy in the next few months. Everything System76 makes seems to be amazing build quality. I have no complaints except maybe I wish the speaker was front facing. I think they're going to start releasing laptops that they build the body for in house in the next year or so, and this may be "fixed" at that time. Don't get me wrong though, the speakers are great you just have to right in front of the laptop to hear it. This is no different from any other laptop I've had in the past.

I agree the Rust compiler is super nice and gives good useful suggestions. I didn’t realize Golang was used for infrastructure as a standard. Backend and infrastructure is what I’m more interested in. Currently I work in the front end cloud space, but am always looking to go back to OS/infrastructure development like I did for a while.

I just used my credit card. I think they will take debit as well.

I can tell you, System76 has fantastic build quality. Personally, I think this would be your best choice. I just bought my first System76 laptop, Onyx Pro, a few months ago and I’ll never get another laptop from anyone else. This includes laptops for my family, not just me.

Are you going to continue using the Mac hardware? I think that would be the first question I’d need answered. If not, I’d go for a Linux first laptop like one from System76, which comes preloaded with PopOS! In fact even if you’re keeping your Mac hardware, PopOS is what I’d recommend. It’s Ubuntu based with the snaps taken out and flatpak/flathub enabled out of the box. It’s Gnome modifications make it quite easy to use, and they’ll be dropping the first version of their new COSMIC desktop environment, that’s written in rust, sometime soon.