On: Crystal 1.0 – What to expect

[ncmncm]

I guess it's an obligate-GC language.

It would help if the front page were to say.

[ezrast → ncmncm]

In practice, it is. You can turn GC off with a compiler flag, but then the standard library will leak all over the place, so it's probably a bad idea unless you're doing something very specialized.

[filleduchaos → ezrast]

You can disable/enable Boehm in Crystal code as well, so at the very least you can take control of when/how GC runs.