While this is a feature not strictly limited to Go, Go applications on the whole have been very easy to install, so it piques my interest when I can have some confidence that using it is just a simple command away.
If I'm going to contribute to an open source project in my free time, I'm more likely to contribute to a project if it is written in a language I enjoy working with.
Go's actually on the tail end of that right now; I've seen a number of things posted to HN that are just implemented in Go without saying so. Of course if you don't click through and look, you won't notice. :) But at this point, if I click through to a GitHub of some project and it's in Go, it's only mild surprise at best; it is most of the way to being just one of the default choices.
There's an even earlier version of this phase, which is when all the projects include the language in the name of the project, i.e., "gosql", "gobrowser", "punwithgo", etc. Go's been out of that one for long enough that I think it's kinda off when a new library has "go" in it unless there's a really good reason (for instance, development tools that really are about Go specifically and not just implemented in Go).
Go has very simple dependency management. A library written in Go generally needs very little environment management and will often integrate easily with a Go codebase. This is further enhanced with Go’s implicit inheritance model.
Go compiles to a static linked binary. A library written in Go usually can be static linked as well with no system dependencies.
Go has excellent cross platform support. Unless a library makes system calls (and sometimes even then), it will also be cross platform.
Go has a clean, simple, style. The lack of features like generics, operator overloading, and constructors means you can look at the code and instantly understand what it does. There is no spooky action at a distance because a variable declaration turns out to be a complex function call. This makes it much easier to understand the overall system impact of using libraries written in Go.
Applications and libraries written in Go build very quickly. My experience with other languages is that trying a substantial new package is a go-make-a-sandwich level of inconvenience. Go libraries usually are ready to use as soon as git clone finishes.
By default. Go has supported dynamic linking for a while now.
I don’t think it’s much of a trend. It seems a practical thing to do to ensure your project can be found by others—it helps when you want your <thing> to be found when someone searches for “<language> library for <thing>” or “do <thing> in <language>”. For Go specifically, it often may be mentioned alongside “cross-platform”, a signifier that you can use it for such work and, I think, also to help when people search for that term when looking to do <thing>.
It's an interesting line. I like the notion of apps I use being written in one of the more modern languages (GO or Rust) but it's not a core feature to a user. This means I can appreciate the language being mentioned but in a much less prominent way. If language isn't critical to a user or developer (of other things) IMO it shouldn't be so prominently mentioned.
I think it's unwarranted, though.