[bsder]

It's certainly better than C++ as a starting language.

And, if you're just starting out, is Rust really more alien than C?

C, quite famously, needs you to understand at least double indirection of pointers (pointer to pointer of type) to be even mildly useful in the language. You can go a long way in Rust before needing to hit that level of complication.

I still wouldn't recommend C or Rust for a first programming language, but Rust really isn't that bad compared to the alternatives.