I think that a lot of confusion has been caused by Go using the term "systems language," because (as I understand it) Go doesn't mean it in the same way that C++ and D do. The Go folks seem to be thinking systems in the sense of large networks of computers and the like (the kind of stuff that Google typically does), whereas the C++ and D folks are thinking systems in terms of stuff like operating systems. What Go is trying to do does not necessarily require low-level primitives (though it can benefit from them), whereas what C++ and D are trying to do does require such primitives.
The problem is by deciding that they can use "systems language" (which they dropped) because "system" means "a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole" results in every language falling under "systems language."
Others have been using it to distinguish languages suitable for writing operating systems/drivers years before Go introduced this confusion.
When I hear "systems programmer" I think computer-to-computer. Therefore when I hear "systems language" I think computer-to-computer even absent Go's use of the term. I not be disappointed if a systems language were not appropriate for creating operating systems.
