Different question, why was the

linux_x64

linker changed from ld.lld to ld.gold in Kotlin v1.5.0?

We encountered some lld-specific bugs on

linux_arm*

targets and switched to gold linker for all Linux targets where it's possible. It's hard to manage different linkers for different targets, so we try to use as unified solution as possible. We might switch back to lld on all platforms in the future after LLVM update. Still, if you want to use another linker, it's possible because since 1.5.0 path to linker is configurable.